Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets
by Original Dark Angel
Summary: AU CoS. Dobby never stopped the mail and as a result, Severus Snape has to rescue our hero from Privet Drive. The only way to keep him safe requires an Unusual Adoption. Abuse via Dursleys
1. The Unusual Adoption

The polyjuice potion was not the correct color. The monkshood must have been too old. With a sigh, Snape tilted the ruined potion into a larger cauldron of neutralizer and waited for the solution to clear before banishing it. As he began to put away the potions ingredients, a brilliantly plumaged bird appeared in a burst of flame and squawked at him, the melody gone from its voice in the phoenix's panic. It landed on his shoulder and he reached up absentmindedly to stroke it. The phoenix nipped his fingers drawing blood and squawked again. Snape swore and moved to the fireplace and flooed to the headmaster's office immediately in response to the summons. As he stepped from the fireplace, he observed Dumbledore overturning the office in a wild frenzy. "What is so important that your blasted bird had to bite me?"

"Arabella has activated the alarm and the aurorers have warded Privet Drive against me and my interference."

"I shall go then. If I think that there is cause for concern, I will bring him here. Do try to calm down." Snape retrieved a paperweight from the desk and muttered "Portus." A moment later, he disappeared from the office.

The room he reappeared in was decidedly not to his taste. If he found the putrid pink color scheme to be offensive, it was nothing compared to the millions of photos of a blonde pig-like boy bearing a vacant expression reminiscent of Crabbe and Goyle. The room bore no sign of the boy-hero who also resided here.

Snape decided that if he found the source of the yelling, he would probably find the trouble. The yelling came from a large, red-in-the-face man bellowing about his right to punish that freak of a nephew. It took six aurorers to hold him back and another two to blast the figurines out of the hands of a bony woman before she could throw them at the aurorers. It would never occur to them to use a freeze or stun spell on poor 'defenseless' muggles. Snape ignored them and glided into the small bedroom.

In the shadows, he found a young aurorer with bubble-gum pink colored hair bent over the still form of the child he had come to check on, a child laying in a small pool of his own blood.

"What happened?"

His voice was sharper than he had meant for it to be, but he could not help it, as the scene brought back many similar memories from his own childhood. To her credit, the girl (whom he now recognized as one of his brighter if clumsy students of the past) did not recoil from him, but answered levelly.

"Beaten heavily with the leg of that broken chair, and a fancy walking stick, before producing some sort of shield. It doesn't look good, but the minister is taking his own sweet time clearing us to move him to St. Mungos for treatment. I just wish that I could do something."

Snape nodded to show that he had understood, stepped forward, and hefted the small boy's pitiful weight. "I, however, am not under his employment, and will not allow his insane power struggle with Dumbledore to cause an injured child any further pain." What had those muggles been doing? The boy weighed sixty pounds at best. "Madame Pomfrey will be a much better alternative than St. Mungos, so if you will inform the necessary author-" He was cut off by the hysterical laughter of the pig-boy. "Miss Tonks, if you would be so kind?" he said with distaste.

"Happy to oblige." Her spell gave the cruel boy the appearance of nothing more than an enormous gray sea slug. She gave her work a satisfied nod and turned back to them, smoothing the boy's hair back from his face. "Take care of him, Professor."

"You were never properly afraid of me at Hogwarts," he sighed.

"Of course not. I'm a Gryffindor." She picked up a broken toy car and muttered "Portus" before handing it to him. "That will get you there. Good luck."

Upon reappearing in the Hospital Wing, Snape caught the attention of both Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore. Half afraid that the boy would die in his arms if he remained there much longer, he set the boy gently on the bed. Madame Pomfrey took one look at her new patient, gave a soft cry, and bustled off to gather her potions. Dumbledore approached and shuddered. "What has gone on here, Severus?"

"Miss Tonks claimed him to have been beaten with the leg of a chair and a walking stick. From the behavior I observed, I am assuming that Dursley was his attacker. Any further information should come from Mr. Potter himself.

At the mention of his name, the boy began to struggle, but Snape sat on the edge of the bed and held him in place. The boy's eyes flung open and he took in his surroundings with a shaky breath, before focusing on his rescuer. "Professor?"

"Relax, Mr. Potter. You are safe at Hogwarts."

"Thought I was dreaming," the boy whispered. "Can I stay here? Please?"

"It is not permitted, my dear boy, but we'll find you somewhere to go. You will not be returned to the Dursley's," Dumbledore soothed. "I will go and fetch your things myself, but I need you to tell me what happened."

The boy cringed and Severus began to absentmindedly rub the frightened child's back. "I'm not supposed to have any contact with wizards. After the first owl, my uncle boarded up the window. But because it was my birthday yesterday-it is Wednesday, right?-owls interrupted my uncle's business dinner with some very important clients. The owls scared Mrs. Mason and Uncle Vernon punished me for misbehaving. Dudley just got in a few good licks with his Smeltings Stick," the boy winced in pain, but tried to sit up anyway.

Snape held him down. "Lay still. Madame Pomfrey will return to heal you in a moment. By the way, it is Thursday, and tell me the truth this time. Your uncle cannot reach you here. When was the last time you ate?"

The boy looked away answering softly, "I stole a biscuit out of the bread box on Sunday. That's when I got locked in my room. The owls showed up yesterday. I mean Tuesday and I heard Mrs. Mason scream. It woke me up. Then Uncle Vernon threw open the door." He took a deep breath. "The light blinded me for a second, and it gave him enough time to drag me out of bed. He took off his belt and gave me a whipping, twelve lashes before throwing me across the room. The chair broke under me and Uncle Vernon kicked me away and picked up part of the chair. He started hitting me with it, muttering about owls and freaks the whole time. After awhile, everything went black, but when I woke up . . ." Snape smoothed the tangled hair back from the fevered forehead and the boy seemed to calm under his touch. "Dudley was hitting me with the stick. I hurt, and I was scared, and I just wanted him to go away. I didn't mean to do magic," he whispered pleadingly.

"That's what summoned the aurorers," Snape mused. "Under-age magic is permissible, however, in life-threatening situations, a category in which this clearly falls." He stood. "I will notify the house-elves and start brewing a nourishment potion."

"Don't you move, young man!" Pomfrey ordered, returning with her supplies. "That boy has broken bones. I need you to keep him still while I mend them. Dumbledore can notify the house-elves and once the boy is asleep, I'll give you a definite list of the potions that I will need."

"Very well, Madame," he answered stiffly. Snape waited as patiently as possible for the nurse to finish examining the boy, but he worried that they might already be too late. The breathing grew steadily erratic and Snape moved forward and picked up the limp hand forcing some of his magic energy into the boy. The breathing improved, but only slightly. "What is the verdict?"

"Four broken ribs. I can mend two, but the others are old injuries so they will have to heal on their own. His left arm is broken in three places, the shoulder is dislocated, and the wrist sprained. I can heal everything but the wrist. I can fix the broken collarbone and the concussion, but he'll need to take it easy the next few days. I'm worried about damage to his throat and lungs. No solid food or strain on his voice." She bit her lip. "I've already healed the cuts, but there is nothing that I can do for the bruises."

The boy's eyes fluttered open and he took in his surroundings. Severus rested his free hand on the boy's good shoulder. "Lay still. You have many bones in need of mending." With the nurse's nod, he provided a firm but gentle brace as she began healing. They boy winced in pain but was held fast. By the time she reached the boy's ribs, he had fallen into a merciful state of unconsciousness, and Snape could not help commenting, "He's a child still. Barely twelve years old. I wish that I had the punishment of them."

"The ministry will take care of it."

"It will be much too soft, nowhere near the amount of pain that the boy suffered."

"I'm giving him a painkiller the next time he wakes up, but he'll need many more. You mentioned nourishment potions. He'll definitely need them because he's forty pounds underweight. She paused and adjusted the sheets. "His survival is nothing short of a miracle." She took a deep breath, before continuing in an almost pleading tone, hoping that she was wrong. "His eyes are very weak, Severus, as if he has not seen light for a long time."

Severus thought back to the small room. The window had been boarded shut and the door most likely locked from the outside before the aurorer's arrival. The only light came from the hall as Potter had pointed out. "He was locked in a room for four days. I would be willing to wager five crates of premium fire whiskey that he had no light for that interval."

A glass bottle crushed to the floor, a dark green potion spreading over the floor, but the nurse paid no attention. "Verbal, Physical, and Psychological abuse. Will there be anything left of him?"

"I survived. So will he."

Dumbledore found Snape in the dungeon classroom that the younger man ruled, keeping three cauldrons of sensitive potions under control with ease. He waited for his colleague to look up or acknowledge his presence in some small way before speaking. "I need your opinion on this, Severus. No, I will mind the potions for a bit. Please sit and read this." He handed the missive from Tonks to the younger man and watched for his reaction while stirring comfrey into the first cauldron. He was not disappointed.

"You can not mean to allow the minister to return him to the muggles!"

"No, but we have precious little time. A blood ritual is the only option, the strongest form of magical adoption."

"Who?"

"It would be dangerous to give the boy a bond to me, and Poppy is almost sixty . . ."

"No. Don't even entertain the idea, Dumbledore. I'm no parent and much too cynical to play at it."

"We have perhaps half an hour before Umbridge comes for the boy and I've exhausted all other options. Remember your childhood, Severus. You can spare Harry from the same fate. You said it yourself, he is not the spoiled brat you thought him to be."

"What about the Weasleys?" Snape cast about desperately for an alternative.

"They already have seven, two under apprenticeship and five within school age."

"I don't have any idea how to be a parent. Besides the boy and I can barely stand each other."

"If he's willing, will you do it as a favor to me?"

"There must be another way."

"There is only the Dursleys." He had won. That was not an option in Severus's eyes.

"I will do it, but only on one condition. If I take on this task, I will educate him as I see fit. No one is to interfere with my training. I won't have people insist on coddling him or complain about what I'm teaching him."

"You have my word, Severus. When it comes to your son, you have the final word."

Snape was surprised at the lack of resistance that the boy offered, although in his own past, if he'd been given a choice to leave, his twelve year old self would have moved in with the Giant Squid and been extremely thankful for the unexpected and rare opportunity.

So the boy's unhesitant offer of his hand was perhaps to be expected. Despite the painkillers, he winced sharply as Dumbledore cut it but didn't make a sound as he clasped hands with his potions master. Dumbledore had scarcely finished the spell before a toad-like woman appeared.

In a voice that was so sickly sweet it reminded Snape of poison, she demanded, "Why was I not met at the gate as I requested?"

Snape ignored her, helping the boy to lie back down and adjusting the covers over his new charge. Instead Dumbledore spoke up. "Because Harry required our attention, Dolores. Did you want something?"

"I've come to return the boy to his guardians."

"Ah," Dumbledore nodded sagely. "Completely unnecessary. I've already done so."

"What are you on about now, Albus?"

"Harry will go home with his father this evening when Madame Pomfrey discharges him."

"James Potter is dead."

"Sadly, yes, but he is not the father of whom I spoke of. Check your records for Harry's legal father, if you will."

Snape held his breath as the woman glanced at the file she carried. Had the magic worked?

Umbridge's scream of frustration reassured him. "How was this done? The proper paperwork was not submitted for a blood ritual!"

"I'm sure it was merely misplaced. Perhaps you should check your mail."

"Fudge will find a way to overturn this!"

"He may try, but blood magic is older than anything the ministry is capable of. Would you like Hagrid to escort you back to the ministry?"

"No, I do not want some half-breed to accompany me! I am not finished here. I came for the boy. He must go back to the muggles!"

"I will not allow them to harm Harry further, Madame. If you try to remove . . . my son from this room without my permission, the magical consequences will be nothing compared to my revenge."

It wasn't enough. Umbridge didn't seem to think that the bond would be strong enough to prevent an unwilling separation. They needed a strong performance from the boy.

Harry did not disappoint. "I want to go home with my dad, Miss Umbridge. Can I please just go home now?"

"Enjoy your victory for now, Dumbledore. It will not last," Umbridge said coldly as she stalked out.

The boy relaxed back into his pillow, wincing slightly when weight was placed on his bad shoulder. Snape moved to the cabinet and withdrew a red potion, measuring out a single vial. "Drink this and get some sleep. It will wear off by dinner and if Pomfrey will allow it, you may eat in the Great Hall."

"Yes, sir." It was only a minute before the potion kicked in, and the boy closed his eyes.

"No, absolutely not! The boy is much too weak to walk all the way down to the Great Hall!"

"Very well." When the nurse returned to her office, Snape walked over to the boy and lifted him. "Do not tell Dumbledore that I went against Madame Pomfrey's orders."

"Technically you're not. I'm not walking," the boy pointed out.

"I may use that as my defense."

"Sir, Dumbledore said . . .well . . . am I really going to your house tonight?"

"Yes. It's your home now too, Pott-Harry. Consider it as such."

"Thank you sir. You didn't have to-"

"I did."

His new son was fast asleep by the time that the knight bus pulled up in front of Spinner's End. Snape debated waking him for a moment before deciding to carry the boy in, directing Stan Shunpike to leave the boy's recovered trunk in the foyer. Jigger met them at the top of the stairs. "Jigger put Master's son in the biggest guest room. Shall Jigger unpack his things?"

"Not tonight. I want him to continue sleeping. I have a list of acceptable foods that I wish you to serve for the boy's breakfast tomorrow."

"Of course, Master. Jigger will take care of everything."

"I know you will. You are dismissed." Snape set the small boy on the bed and surveyed the room, quite pleased with the house-elf's choice. It was still a little bare, but not as bad as some of the other rooms. It would do.

Snape was awakened by a frightened cry. His groggy mind struggled to place the voice and wondered how it had gotten into his house. As he used his deck to push himself up and stand, he remembered the boy. He hastened out of the study and found the elf punishing himself in the hallway, violently beating his head into the floor.

"Jigger does not know what to do! Jigger did not ask for instruction regarding Master's son! Shall Jigger calm the boy? Jigger does not know!"

"No need to forcibly calm the child. He has probably had a nightmare. You may stop punishing yourself." Snape moved past the house-elf into the chamber and shook his young charge's shoulder. "Wake up, Potter." The boy struggled against an unseen attacker and concerned, Snape raised the boy to a sitting position and forced his way into the boy's mind.

He saw pure hatred in the eyes of the adults trying their best to kill the child cowering before them. In the vivid emerald eyes of the boy, he saw pain, fear, and worst of all he saw acceptance. He shook the boy's shoulders firmly. "Wake-up! You are safe now, Jamie. This is only a dream." The boy's eyes were flung open and stared in shock at his teacher. His shuddery breathing was the only sound in the room as the pair assessed each other. Then the boy let out a choked sob and Snape hesitantly pulled the child to him and patted the boy's back very lightly. The tears didn't last long, and the boy pulled away, embarrassed. Snape tilted the boy's chin up to look him in the eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Yes. I'm sorry I woke you, sir."

"I was working in my study. It is of no consequence." Noticing the odd coldness in the room, Snape walked over to the hearth and lit a fire. "Do you normally deal with such nightmares?"

"Yes, sir," the boy admitted softly.

Snape nodded and left the room for a moment. He returned with a vial of the red potion he had used earlier. "This is dreamless sleep. Take all of it and it will guarantee four hours of sleep. Turn off you alarm clock and sleep in tomorrow. Jitter will have breakfast on the table no matter how late."

"Thank you, sir." The boy wiggled down under the covers again and tried to swallow the potion. Snape rubbed the boy's throat to coax him to swallow it all.

"Get some sleep."

"Yes, sir."

Snape was surprised to find the boy sitting at the table when he came downstairs for his customary six o'clock breakfast but didn't show it. "Trouble sleeping?"

The boy nodded, eyes downcast as if it was something to be ashamed of. "Yes, sir."

Snape did not pursue the topic further. At the ring of the bell, Jitter appeared with a platter of hotcakes. Snape calmly served himself while observing the boy's fascination with the creature. "It is called a house-elf. You have not seen one before?" The boy shook his head. "Surprising. There's a hundred or so running about Hogwarts. Servants after a fashion, I suppose. This is Jitter and if you need anything, just let him know." He pushed the platter closer to the boy. "Help yourself. The food is here for you to eat."

The boy moved as if a fire had been lit under him, placing three hotcakes on his plate and adding some weak applesauce and toast to his meal.

"After you have finished breakfast, feel free to explore the house. Just avoid the West bedroom curtains. Infested with Doxies, and I haven't had a chance to get rid of them. We're not as haunted as Hogwarts, but Tanya haunts the second floor by the nursery. She was my great-grandmother's youngest sister and died before she could turn five. She proves to be an interesting playmate for any age."

"Okay."

Tanya ran down the hall as fast as she could and would have crashed straight into the pale boy if she had been solid. As it was, she slid through him and spun back around. "Who are you?"

"Harry James. I guess you're Tanya."

"Maybe. Maybe not." She surveyed him closely. He looked tired and weak and very sick. "You should be in bed," she informed him seriously. "Tell your mother to take you home and put you straight to bed."

"I can't. She's dead. Besides I kind of live here now."

"This is my house."

"Can we share?"

"Will you play with me?"

"Sure. Where's your nursery?"

Snape studied the potions compendryum in front of him. He disagreed with the effects of a winter healing draught, but was trying to figure out what the author had bungled so badly as to get icicles hanging from the nose of the drinker.

The soft sound of laughter came down the hall. Severus stood, intending to check on Tanya and make sure one of her pranks hadn't gotten out of hand before looking for the boy. He found them both in the nursery, Tanya floating just above the rug and laughing as the boy reenacted some ridiculous fairy tale for her with the puppet stage.

"Having fun, you two?"

Tanya turned and waved. "Sev, Harry James is so funny."

"I see you have many talents, Harry."

"Thank you, sir." The boy gave him a tentative smile, and turned back to his task.

A coughing fit ended the performance, the fourth one according to Tanya. Snape sent him to his room for a nap, with the promise to play Wizards' Chess that evening if the boy finished his summer's homework for one of his classes.


	2. Diagon Alley

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

**A/N: Wow! Thanks for the reviews. Since this fic is done, I'm hoping to have a daily or every-other-day update. I hope that everyone likes this because I've started books three and four with the intentions of doing the full series. If you enjoy this, stay tuned for other fics, because I'm on a Severitis kick. (My apologies to one reviewer, I was mistaken. The name Jamie is explained in the Third Chapter so I will put that up Sunday Evening instead of Monday Evening.)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series. JK Rowling does.**

"Sir?"

Snape looked up to see the boy standing nervously in the doorway. "Yes?"

"I got an owl from Ron. The Weasleys are going to Diagon Alley tomorrow and I was wondering if we could go then?"

"I think we can manage that. Inform Jigger that we will lunch in Diagon Alley tomorrow."

"Yes, sir," Harry nodded. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

* * *

The next day, Snape observed a decided awkwardness in the boy's behavior. The closer it came to eleven, the quieter the boy became and Snape realized that he was nervous about his friends' reactions to the events of the summer. He had sent no owls to them in the week he had stayed with Snape, had not contacted them at all since before the incident at Privet Drive if at all. 

Upon leaving the house, he decided to make the boy's task easier. "I have a few errands to run, so I will meet you for lunch at one in the Leaky Cauldron. Here are your funds. I trust that you will spend them wisely."

"Sir, I couldn't take your money. I have a vault in Gringotts."

"I am your guardian now, and it is my responsibility. Leave the rest of your money in Gringotts until you need it for an apprenticeship."

"But-"

"You are now my legal son. Everything I own will one day be yours. Do not be afraid to use it. It cannot be taken away and I will not change my mind. You can relax a bit." He left no room for arguing and instructed the boy on exactly how to use floo powder.

* * *

"Harry!" Hermione hugged him tightly. "We haven't heard from you in forever. Ron wasn't even sure you were coming." 

"I came. Where's Ron?"

"In Flourish and Blotts. Gilderoy Lockhart is doing a book signing!"

"Who's Gilderoy Lockhart?"

"A really famous author. He's vanquished a ton of Dark Creatures. Come on, let's go meet him!"

Ron met them at the door and clapped Harry on the back, not noticing Harry's wince. Hermione did and frowned for a second before shrugging it off. "So the muggles let you out then?"

"Not really. What on earth is going on?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Some famous git that my mum and Hermione fancy."

"I do not!" Hermione protested.

A photographer stepped on Ron's foot then, preventing a retort, and snarled, "Out of the way there. This is for the Daily Prophet."

"Big deal," Ron griped.

At that, Lockhart looked up, spotted Harry, and gasped, "Harry Potter!"

As he grabbed Harry, the raven-haired boy protested loudly, "No, I'm not him!" Hermione could have sworn that she had heard him say, "Not anymore!" but then Lockhart yanked him forward by the arm and her friend cried out in pain.

In an instant, a black figure swooped down on the scene. "Turn the boy loose, Gilderoy. You wouldn't want the bad publicity."

"No such thing as bad publicity, Severus," the blonde wizard chuckled nervously.

Snape smiled unpleasantly. "I assure you that there is."

In the confusion, Harry had disappeared. Scanning the shop, Hermione spied him sitting on the steps in a corner, rocking back and forth. She hurried to his side, but he jerked away from her light touch. "Don't." It was a pleading for mercy but accepting the lack thereof and it chilled Hermione.

"Harry?" she whispered.

"Bet you loved that didn't you, Potter. Can't even go into a bookshop without being worshipped. If Professor Snape hadn't intervened, you would have been on the cover of the Daily Prophet. You-"

"Leave him alone," Ginny stepped forward. "He didn't want any of that."

"Look, Potter. You've got yourself a girlfriend."

Hemione saw confusion on Harry's face as he tried to work out who Ginny was, but then he paled and whispered, "Don't call me that."

"Didn't call you anything."

"Play nicely, Draco." A tall blonde man appeared and gripped Draco's shoulder rather tightly in Hermione's opinion. "Harry Potter. And the Weasleys. And . . . Miss Granger? My, what a surprise."

"Children, let us get outside. It's madness in here."

"Arthur Weasley. I do hope they're paying you overtime for all of those extra raids." He withdrew a battered book from Ginny's cauldron and laughed. "Obviously not."

Professor Snape appeared then and caught Mr. Malfoy's arm. "Enough, Lucius. I must get to Borgin and Burkes for potion ingredients, and then locate the chimera hearts. You had a sale to make, remember?"

"Take the book, girl," the blonde man hissed, practically shoving it into Ginny's hands. "It's the best your father can give you."

Mr. Weasley almost dove for the man, but Hagrid held him back and Professor Snape shoved the blonde man out the door. "Go on, Draco. I'll be there momentarily." Once the blondes had disappeared, he turned back to Harry. The boy hadn't moved from the bottom step, and the rocking never ceased. Snape knelt next to him and catching his eye, placed a hand firmly on Harry's shoulder. "Are you alright?" Harry nodded. "Then pull yourself together and finish your shopping. Lockhart won't bother you again, but can you avoid drawing attention to yourself for the rest of the day?"

"Yes, sir."

Snape nodded. "Good. Do not forget; lunch is at one."

"I won't."

As Snape left, Ron turned to Harry and shuddered. "Stuck with Snape as your chaperone? Ouch."

"He's not that bad. I need robes. Let's go to Madame Malkins. I'll grab my books after it has calmed down a bit."

"Alright, mate."

* * *

Hermione watched Harry closely as they entered Madame Malkins, but he seemed to have regained his normalcy. 

"How may I help you three today?"

"Uh, school robes. I need three new ones."

"Step onto the stool and I'll get your measurements."

"Uh, just some pre-made ones, please. Custom is expensive."

"You are to have custom robes that fit you regardless of cost. Your . . . father . . . was very clear about that."

Hermione heard Ron gasp but was too startled to make any noise herself. James Potter was dead, and nothing could bring the dead back to life. The only way that Harry could have a father was if he had been adopted, but why hadn't Harry told them about it, if he had? It was huge news! But Harry seemed nervous, and the only person Hermione had seen him with was Snape, and it couldn't be . . . could it?

Harry just ducked his head and nodded in response to the witch's words and allowed her to pull out casual clothing as well. For the first time, Hermione watched where the witch pulled clothing from; the children's section. Harry seemed even smaller than he did last year. Something was wrong or had been wrong for a very long time.

Once they left the shop, Ron steered them towards the Ice Cream Parlor. "What was that all about, mate?"

"I got adopted over the summer," Harry whispered. Hermione frowned. With the exception of Lockhart's attack on him, Harry had never spoken above a whisper the entire time.

Ron was oblivious. "That's great, Harry! Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't know how you would react."

"Who adopted you?" Ron continued, blatantly ignoring the obvious. "Dumbledore and Flitwick are too old. Did they let Hagrid adopt you? Or is McGonagall married?"

"No. I don't know. Professor Snape adopted me."

**"What!"**

"Can we talk about this somewhere else?" Harry pleaded glancing over his shoulder.

Hermione followed his gaze. A short squat woman with a squashed face sat at the next table over and she was watching them with an expression of great interest. "Come on, Ron. I'll get our supplies from the apothecary and we'll discuss this at lunch."

Noticing the woman for the first time, Ron agreed.

* * *

In the safety of a private parlor at the Leaky Cauldron they sat down, their purchases were forgotten. But Harry just sat there shaking. Ron didn't know how to ask him anything, so he was grateful when Hermione took the lead. 

"Harry, who was that woman?" she asked gently.

"Miss Umbridge, secretary to the Minister of Magic. She wants to return me to the Dursley's." A look of fear passed over his face.

"What happened this summer? How did this all start?"

Harry took a deep breath and looked Ron in the eye for a second before bowing his head again. "Professor Snape . . . Father . . . I don't really know what to call him . . . he's going to explain pertinent stuff to your parents, but I wanted to tell you beforehand so that you could hear it from me and in detail so that there are no surprises later. Some of it is bad, and some of it is horrifying. I don't want to talk about it, and after this, I won't."

"Alright, Harry. Tell us what happened," Ron's level answer surprised even him.

"They found out about the letters, the cake, and the gifts. Everything. It wasn't allowed, so I got punished the same as usual, knocked around, except this time . . . this time they went too far. Uncle Vernon broke the chair when beating me and then started using that. He . . . almost . . . he almost killed me. The ministry sent some aurorers when I threw up a shield charm, but they were trying to cover it up, so the minister wouldn't lose face."

"What?" Ron gasped.

Hermione shook her head. "Of course. The people would be horrified to find that their hero, just a little boy really, has lived in an abusive household for twelve years and was nearly killed as a result. Fudge would be forced to resign almost immediately. Classic politics, really."

"You should go to the papers, Harry."

"No!" Flushed, Harry looked down, and whispered, "Sorry. The way Miss Umbridge is trying to spin it, turning Professor Snape into the villain, will have my life under a microscope once it hits the papers. Battling it will be worthless with Fudge leaning on the papers. And . . . I don't want the whole Wizarding World to know that a muggle almost killed me. I don't want to disappoint any more people."

"Harry, you're not a disappointment. Not to anybody," Hermione said firmly. "You're just a kid like us and if they can't get that through their heads, then they're not worth thinking about. Do you understand me?" All she got was a half-hearted nod, but she let the matter go for the time being. They needed more information in order to help him.

Ron turned to look at Harry. "Why isn't their version of the story out already if they're trying to discredit Snape?"

"They don't want people to connect it to the disturbance on Privet Drive. The adoption won't be public until we get to Hogwarts, so they're attempting to buy some time." Harry took a deep breath. "Dumbledore sent Professor Snape to check on things. When he found out what happened, well, he took me back to Hogwarts. It made Fudge angry. He sent Miss Umbridge to take me back to the Dursleys. So Professor Snape adopted me through a blood ritual. It's supposed to be impossible to break-blood magic always is-but Fudge is going to do his best. I've been staying with Professor Snape for about a week now."

"This is ridiculous, mate. My folks would have taken you in, Harry. You should come and stay with us until school starts. Snape is probably looking for an excuse to go back to normal, so just tell him that you want to stay with us."

"I don't want to, Ron. I couldn't take advantage of your parents when I already have a home and guardian."

"It's Snape!"

Harry recoiled sharply. "He isn't that bad, Ron. He said that he **wanted** me. It's permanent, so I have a home now; an address that doesn't include a cupboard or a specific room. And I kind of have a parent now. Maybe he isn't like your Mum, but I can't remember having anyone check to make sure that I have enough to eat or that I get my schoolwork done. I've never had an adult ask me if I've slept well or what flavor marmalade I like on my toast. At the Dursley's, I was lucky to get fed once a week! Professor Snape lets me eat as much as I want, and he said that it's okay! Don't ruin this for me!"

Taken aback, it took Ron awhile to figure out how to respond. "I'm not . . . I don't understand, Harry. It doesn't make sense. I thought you didn't like Snape."

"He saved my life, Ron! Three times now! I owe him a lot. I think I can forget about petty differences. Ron, look, he saved me from the Dursley's and apologized for misjudging the situation before. He gave me a way out. He's still Snape but he genuinely seems to be atoning. I think that I can trust him."

"You're sure?"

"He could tear me to shreds with half a dozen words. He knows in exact detail what Uncle Vernon and Dudley did. He knows that I don't get enough sleep because of the nightmares, and I'm afraid of the dar-er-just about everything. But he never uses any of it to hurt me."

"If you ever need help or he's being awful, we're here for you, Harry. Anytime you need us."

"I know. But for now, I think that I'm good."

"If you're sure . . ."

"I am."

* * *

The luncheon had not gone at all well. Both Weasley's had been suitably horrified by the way that the boy had been treated by the muggles, but were insistent on them being better guardians for the boy. The woman had even gone so far as to insist that an unmarried man living in a dungeon had no business attempting to raise a troubled boy. That outburst had almost made him laugh and embarrassed the boy. 

"We live in a house, Mrs. Weasley. Apretty nice one," the boy whispered when he said it. Severus had been unable to coax the boy to speak loud enough to be heard outside of his nightmares, but in the suddenly shocked silent room, it was sufficient enough. "I've got my own room and Jigger is a real good cook." Realizing an act was in order, he continued as cheerfully as he could, "I like living with Dad. He helps me with schoolwork and has been teaching me how to brew some advanced potions."

"If that's what you want then, Harry," Mr. Weasley conceded.

That had been the end of that. Mrs. Weasley continued to interrogate him with pointed questions and not-so-subtle looks, but he managed to be civil through the rest of the afternoon, and after shrinking the boy's things, he removed them from the sea of over eager redheads.

At the end of the street he grasped the boy's hand and pulled him aside. "Down this street is Knockturn Alley. It is a highly unpleasant place, and if I ever catch you in there without me, you will be cleaning cauldrons until you're fifty. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. I need to pick up some of the more dangerous potions ingredients from a less than savory character, since she did not have them prepared when I purchased them. Do not leave my side."

"I won't." Indeed the boy clung so closely that Snape almost tripped over him twice. Upon reaching the hag's street cart, Snape released the boy's hand and snatched the bag from the wizened old witch, who cackled and leered at the boy.

"What a little dearie. 'Allo, m'boy. Come with your old man to this alley often? Gonna be a potions master like 'im?"

"Leave off frightening my son, Gretal, and if you wish to keep my business, you will prepare your ingredients prior to the sale."

"Of course, Master Snape. Wouldn't dream otherwise. Saw you down at the old B&B's earlier. Buy something interesting?"

"Doxy wings, and lizard tongues if you must know. I will return for the other ingredient next week. Good day." He grasped the boy's hand again before leaving the alley. "You ever meet a hag before?"

"No, sir. She was kind of nosy."

"Most of them are. Do yourself a favor and avoid them if you can. Not all muggle fairy tales are completely false." He watched the boy digest that and shudder. "We'll return home now. I fetched your books before lunch, so if you have everything?"

"Yes. I double checked."

"Excellent."

* * *

When they arrived home, Dumbledore was waiting for them. "Severus. Harry. It is good to see you two. I found a box of Harry's personal effects from when he was an infant in the Dursley's attic, along with some of Lily's things. I thought that Harry would like them. I asked your house-elf to place them in his room." 

"It's getting rather late, so it should probably wait until tomorrow. I want to make sure that the muggles didn't tamper with anything. Would you care to stay for dinner, Albus?"

"Ah, I'm afraid I can't. My great-granddaughter's birthday dinner is tonight and I promised Leoni that I wouldn't miss something as big as her fifth birthday party."

"Very well. Floo powder is on the mantle if you need it."

"I hope your granddaughter has a happy birthday," the boy whispered.

Albus smiled warmly. "Thank you, m'boy. I'm sure she will."


	3. Meet Jamie Snape

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

**A/N: Thanks to Microsoft Word's automatic spell check, there was an issue with the spelling of auror, Zabini, and Jitter. The aforementioned terms are in their corect spelling and I will endeavor to maintain that. I do plan on reposting the first and second chapters with corrections ASAP.**

**This fic will be in Snape/Dumbledore/Ron/Hermione/Draco's POV and not Harry's until one scene in Easter and another at the end of the story. I want my readers to view the changes to the character through the eyes of Harry/Jamie's self-appointed protectors, rather than tumble with the muddled thoughts of my lead character. Jamie does not refer to Snape as Dad unless he is putting on an act for the people around him. It is well-faked.**

**Disclaimer: If only I owned the Harry Potter Franchise, I could afford to pay someone else to type up my handwritten notes. Alas, JKR owns the series, which is why updates are not a regular clockwork type of thing.**

**Warning: Deals with some memories of abuse. Mostly psychological and nothing graphic.**

Snape ran a few mild detection spells on the box after lunch the next day, to ensure that the Dursley's had not placed anything dangerous in it. Confiscating a jeweled letter opener, he placed it in the boy's room safe until the boy was old enough to appreciate and take care of it, he then allowed the boy to go through the box until dinner, while he retreated to the study.

* * *

Less than an hour later, Snape felt the ghost's presence in his study and looked up. "Good afternoon, Tanya." He had often wondered what she would have looked like in real life instead of the silvery apparition of a tiny child in a long nightdress. Her curly hair could have been black like his, and he wouldn't be surprised if she was pale from being sickly. But the expression on her face could only be matched by his godson's pout at the same age.

"Sev, Harry James told me to go away," the little girl pouted, putting one tiny hand on his arm as if she expected to be able to grab hold of him and pull Snape to his feet.

"That certainly doesn't sound like the boy. He adores you."

"I was trying to cheer him up," she whispered petulantly.  
"This caught Snape's attention. "Is the boy upset, Tanya?" The ghost nodded vigorously. "What upset him?"

"A letter from his box. I couldn't read it, but it made him start to cry and then it made him very angry."

Snape stood rapidly and started towards the door, only to realize that Tanya was following him. Not wanting an audience during the first parental talk he gave the boy, he shook his head. "Please ask Jitter to entertain you for a little while, Tanya." She graced him with a scowl worthy of one of his sulks, but hurried to comply. He continued onto the boy's bedroom.

The boy knelt in front of the open box with a few items scattered about him and an odd short piece of parchment clutched in his hand, as he furiously rubbed at his eyes. "Go away, Tanya!"

Snape did something he hadn't done in years. He sat Indian-style across from the boy, leaning back against the wall. "Jitter is watching her." The boy looked up at him startled. "She said that you were upset."

"Tattle-tale," the boy muttered, provoking a rare grin from Snape.

"I think that it can be forgiven, as she is only four. I'm more concerned about what you found that had such an effect on you." The boy looked down at his lap and handed the page to Snape, who recognized it as muggle carbon paper and a copy of a letter. Looking it over, Snape was disgusted. "Your aunt is a cruel, selfish, and incredibly foolish woman. Do not let her prejudice get to you."

"It's not that. She's said stuff like that about magic my whole life. It's just . . ." Tears filled his emerald eyes again. "She didn't want me. Not at all. Dumbledore had to THREATEN her to get her to take me." His shoulders sagged, and Snape pulled the boy to him. "I always thought . . . that even if they didn't like me as much as Dudley, that they had chosen to take me in. I didn't think that they hated me enough to . . . to . . .I was a burden. Something that they HAD to take care of. Why wasn't I loveable? Did my parents love me before they died? Everyone says that they did, but how do I know for sure? I never met them."

Both of the boy's hands clutched the front of his robes and somehow he had ended up in Snape's lap. Snape pressed the boy's head against his chest and held him tightly as the boy wept. For his parents, for the Dursleys, and for himself. "Your mother loved you more than life itself. It was apparent in everything that she did. Your father adored you, bragged non-stop about what a wonderful Gryffindor quidditch player you would be. Funny how he failed Divintion three years in a row." It didn't ease the boy's tears and Snape realized that this was probably the first time that the boy had ever grieved. It wasn't a pleasant way to spend his time, but when duty calls . . . "Go ahead and cry. Merlin knows you have reason enough."

* * *

Hours later, well after dinnertime, Snape still held the boy. He had finally cried himself to sleep and Snape was reluctant to disturb him. He leaned against the wall and studied his young charge. The pale cheeks were tearstained, but the countenance was quite calm. This twelve year old boy was still a child, still naïve to the ways of the world, still vulnerable, still innocent. Snape would not tolerate anyone-not even Dumbledore-attempting to take that away. Let the Prophecy rot, no twelve year old could take out Voldemort, especially the one in his lap, no matter how powerful.

Shifting the boy's weight, Snape stood and moved to the large bed. He pulled the covers down and sat the boy on the bed, carefully supporting him as he removed the robes and lay him down. Then he slipped off the boy's muddy trainers and set them on the floor, and hung up the robes. He covered up the child and left the chambers.

* * *

The boy appeared in his study before breakfast with an apology, and it took Snape half an hour to convince the child that the situation did not require one. Finally he managed to get his point across and settled them at the breakfast table. He could finally give the boy real food, and it disappeared almost as fast as it was placed on the boy's plate.

"Sir, I meant to ask you last night, but the letter distracted me. Were you friends with my mum?"

"After a fashion, I suppose. Why?"

"This was in the box. I think that it's me, but on the back it says Jamie, and since it looks like she wrote the note to you, I thought you might know why."

Snape took the note and studied it. He had never received this. Lily had died first. _Sev, I thought that you would appreciate Jamie's first attempt at potions. Just like you, he said. James almost had an aneurysm, which should make it all the more comical to you. Lily_

The picture depicted the one year old stirring a make-believe potion in the miniature cauldron and beaming. He had purchased the toy cauldron set, upon realizing that Potter was stupidly attempting to teach the baby how to fly. It would have been most amusing to him eleven years ago to have swayed Potter's son into choosing potions over flying.

He looked up at the boy in front of him. The eager green eyes were just like his mother's. The abuse and neglect had taken away much of what made him look like Potter, to his surprise. "Your mother called you Jamie. It was her nickname for you. She always wanted to use it on your father, but since he wouldn't answer to it, she called you it instead. Your father preferred Harry after his father."

"Jamie," the boy mused. "It sounds familiar, but I don't actually remember her calling me it." Then he looked up. "You called me Jamie. The other night when I had a nightmare, you called me Jamie."

"I was your guard for almost six months. Being around your mother for that long, some of her habits rubbed off on me. Your nickname was one of them, since I couldn't very well call you Potter when there were three of you, and since it annoyed James Potter so much . . . once you came to school, I had to call you Potter in order to keep myself from slipping."

"Sir," the boy began hesitantly. "In the hospital wing . . . when you adopted me . . . it wasn't very clear, but . . . um . . . what is my last name now? Is it still Potter or is it yours?"

"Legally, your last name is Snape due to the adoption, but if you wish to use your father's surname, it will not offend me."

"No. I really don't want to be Harry Potter anymore. I'm tired of the way people treat me. I'd really rather use your last name if it's okay."

"It is your last name as well."

"Do you mind if I go back to being called Jamie?"

"Of course not. It is your name, and your choice."

"Then I'm Jamie Snape from now on," the boy tried it out and nodded in satisfaction.

Snape shook his hand and smirked. "Nice to meet you, Jamie Snape." The boy grinned. It was the first time since the incident and seeing the boy's face light up, Snape was very pleased at the turn of events. "How about a game of chess?"

"Sounds good."

* * *

Jamie's screams woke him that night and he rushed to the boy's room. Jitter was lying sprawled out on the floor with a bump beginning to form on his head. Jamie was twisting and sobbing as he tried to escape his nightmare and lit by an unearthly golden glow. Snape recognized it to be a natural shield of some sort, unconsciously put forth to protect the child. At least the ministry wouldn't be able to track it. Hesitantly, he reached forward to try to wake the boy, unsure of what the shield would do. But the boy had to be awakened. He was surprised when the shield didn't throw him across the room as must have happened to Jitter. Instead it seemed to accept his presence and surround him as well. He lifted the boy into his lap and rocked him back and forth. "Jamie, it's alright. You're safe. Wake up now."

His charge sprang awake once again and Snape turned him so that he wouldn't see the elf, briefly wondering at the coldness of the room and ignited the fire. "Don't let her send me back," the boy sobbed. "Please, I'll do anything not to go back."

"Shh, you're staying right here until school starts, and you'll come back for vacations and next summer. You're safe."

"She wants to send me back. She's gonna find a way."

"No, she won't. It's impossible. I won't let it happen. I promise you're safe."

* * *

"It is sooo hot," Jamie complained as he stood in the door to the study.

"It is called summer, " Snape answered dryly.

"It's too hot for summer even. It's like a furnace. Even Tanya is warm and she's a ghost."

"That's an exaggeration, but I agree that it is warmer than usual. How about you go swimming in the pond out back? I have a book to read, but I can do that outside."

"I can't swim. Only Dudley got lessons."

"We'll remedy that someday, but you don't have to worry. The pond is about four feet deep on the shallow side with a couple of holes, but they're no deeper than five feet. As long as you stay on the left side you should be fine."

"Okay." The boy disappeared and reappeared in a pair of denim cutoff shorts and a towel. "Ready."

They set out in companion able silence, and upon reaching the pond, Jamie immediately ran in, yelping at the cold. Snape made a sarcastic remark, but the boy just laughed and sent a wave of water at the professor, who prudently stepped backwards. After a few moments, he returned to his play. A shimmer at the other side of the pond caught his eye and he started toward it. A second later he disappeared under the water. He was fighting desperately to reach the surface and his shriek jarred Snape into action. The man waded into the water and caught his charge's arms, pulling him to the surface. With an arm firmly around the boy's waist, he hauled the boy out of the water and thumped his back lightly to help the boy cough up the water. He didn't appear to have swallowed much, but his breathing was increasingly erratic, to the point where he was literally gasping for breath, tears spilling down his face.

"Take deep breaths, Jamie," Snape instructed.

The boy's efforts were as obvious as they were futile, ending with a half-frustrated, half-frightened "Can't!"

Snape moved quickly to dry ground and pulled the boy into his lap, keeping the child's back firmly pressed against his own chest and placed one hand on the boy's chest and the other under his chin. "Slow down. Relax. You're completely safe. That's it, Jamie. Just breathe. Shh. Shh." Finally breathing properly, the boy rested there a moment before fully realizing exactly where he was. "Hold still. I want to make sure that your attack is completely over."

"Yes, sir," he whispered, his chest hitching with the effort of speaking. The experience had tired him to exhaustion. A minute later he had fallen asleep.

Snape sighed, cast a drying charm and carried his charge back to the house.

* * *

Snape checked on the boy for the third time to find him still asleep. He had slept through lunch and due to the lasting effects of malnourishment, needed something to eat. If it had been anything else, he would have let the boy sleep. He shook the boy's shoulder lightly. "Jamie, wake up. It's time for dinner." The boy moaned and burrowed deeper into the pillows. "Wake up," Snape smirked, tugging a pillow out of the boy's grip. "Come on, there's food downstairs," he enticed and the boy finally opened his eyes.

"That's an unfair bribe, sir."

"Whatever it takes to get you up. Do you need help to get downstairs?"

"I can do it." The boy rolled out of bed and followed him downstairs, collapsing at his seat. "Bless Jitter."

"You're that hungry? You didn't seem at all inclined to get out of bed for lunch."

"I slept really good."

"Well, Jamie. You slept well." Snape shook his head. "Now if you could only sleep that well without half-drowning yourself . . ." Snape sighed. "That water is very shallow, no deeper than 6 feet at its deepest point, and I warned you about the holes. Do you mind telling me why you went into a panic attack?"

"I went under," Jamie whispered.

"I know that you never went swimming before, so when did you develop such an aversion to being underwater?"

"My aunt used to fill the tub with scalding hot water or ice cold water and dunk me when I was little. Then she would shake me under the water for a few seconds to 'clean' me and yank me out again."

"How old were you?"

The boy shrugged. "As far back as I can remember up until I turned eight."

"I sincerely hope that woman dies a most painful death. Their cruelty is beyond anything I've ever heard of. No wonder you panicked." Snape studied his charge. "Panic attacks do not usually cause such problems with breathing. Have you ever been diagnosed with asthma?"

"No, sir."

"Are you telling me you have made it to the age of twelve without anyone suggesting the idea to you despite spending more time in the infirmary than any other two students combined? Even I noticed that you were often out of breath last year."

"I didn't go to doctors before I went to Hogwarts. My aunt said something about asthma being expensive when I was little after I passed out in the cupboard. Uncle Vernon just called me a burden and punished me. After that I had to dust my cupboard once a day so it wouldn't happen again, but I'd almost forgotten about that."

"We'll have Madame Pomfrey examine you specifically for asthma tomorrow when we return to Hogwarts."

"All right."

They hadn't even reached pudding, when a house-elf appeared in the middle of the cake. Snape didn't recognize it as any of his acquaintances and it most certainly wasn't Jitter. Instead of a neat tea towel, it wore a ragged pillowcase instead and looked decidedly worse for the wear.

Jamie looked at it in confusion but apparently decided to try being polite to it. "Er, hello."

"Harry Potter! So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, sir . . . such an honor it is, sir . . ."

"Dobby, is it?" Snape sneered. "This isn't Harry Potter. This happens to be my son, so return to your master now."

"No, I musn't. I must warn Harry Potter. Harry Potter, sir, must not return to Hogwarts. There is great danger there this year. He should go back and stay home with his family and not let bad wizards get to him."

"Harry Potter will never return to Hogwarts, elf. Now please remove yourself from our dessert."

"There are terrible things at Hogwarts! Harry Potter saved house-elves with the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Master has been plotting for many months. It is not safe for the great Harry Potter at school."

"Who is your master?" Snape demanded, grabbing the unfortunate creature. "And what is he up to?"

"Dobby can not tell, sir. Dobby must keep his master's secrets even though he wishes to keep the great Harry Potter, sir, safe from harm," the elf sobbed, wrenching away from Snape and slamming his head into the floor repeatedly. "Bad Dobby. Bad Dobby."

"Is it You-Know-Who?" Snape demanded.

"No, sir. Not HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED." With that the elf disappeared, leaving Snape to try and figure out the puzzle while reassuring the twelve-year-old who never felt safe that he was indeed safe now.


	4. Awaken Hogwarts

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

**A/N: I do not have asthma, and my friends who do have it all have different allergens and reactions. Anything that is completely wrong, just assume is a difference between muggle and magical asthma. Please enjoy the chapter.**

"You're right, Severus. It is a mild form of asthma, with severe repercussions from stress, smoke, thick dust, and panic attacks. But he is immune to any plant and animal allergens. I'll procure an inhaler for him from St. Mungos if you wait just a moment." Poppy smiled down at the black haired boy that she treated more than any other student and ruffled his hair. "Congratulations on being adopted, Jamie dear. I'll be back in a few minutes and then you're free to go." After flooing to St. Mungos, she hurried through the process of authorizing the medication and registering of treatment to return to the Hospital Wing. She had secretly suspected asthma since the boy had coughed so violently after nearly swallowing the snitch last year. But she never had a chance to investigate it specifically with those horrible muggle guardians, and after the damage done to his throat it probably progressed quite a bit.

She stepped out of the fireplace and found the boy dozing off next to Professor Snape. That worried her. His insatiable need to sleep probably stemmed from insomnia or nightmares. The boy might become a narcoleptic if this continued. She touched his shoulder gently to rouse him and showed him how to work the inhaler and explained the rules of asthma to him.

"I'll give your father an extra one to hang on to, but be careful with this, Jamie." She ruffled his hair again. "Go on now and get out of my infirmary. There's a secret passage down the hall behind the statue of Krystyna the Fairy-Child. The password is Fey Blood, but I'll let you work out where it leads."

"Thank you, Madame Pomfrey!" The boy placed the inhaler in his pocket and took off.

Poppy turned back to Professor Snape. "Is he normally this tired?"

"He experienced a flashback yesterday, and met a psychotic house-elf intent on 'saving' him from some terrible danger that he could not disclose. It resulted in nightmares as I expected. It actually happens less than one would think. He's stayed there for close to a month, and has only had a nightmare three times."

"Do you give him dreamless sleep afterwards?"

"The first time, but I don't want him to become addicted. He hasn't seemed to need it in any event."

"Alright, but if nightmares become frequent allow him to have some as needed."

"Of course. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to meet with Dumbledore."

"Have a pleasant day, Severus."

"The same to you, Poppy."

* * *

"How is Harry doing, Severus?" 

"I'm not really sure. Better than he was, but not the same as he used to be. He won't go by that name anymore though. It is as if he is trying to put a wall between himself and who people expect him to be. For sure few people will connect a Jamie Snape to Harry Potter."

"Jamie? Wherever did he come up with that?"

"It's what Lily called him, Albus. He found it written on an old photograph and asked me about it."

"I never knew that, but then again I never saw Lily after the baby was born and James always referred to him as Harry."

"I think that it was the only thing they ever disagreed on. I'm not surprised that the boy prefers his mother's nickname for him. It is a link to her that he will undoubtedly cling to. I am surprised that he has no inclination to use the Potter surname, but it is probably for the best."

"How much of that is Professor Snape's level headed thinking, and how much is Sev Snape's desire to get back at James Potter?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"At least you've let part of that old grudge go. Enough to raise the boy." Dumbledore abruptly switched topics. "So what did you wish to speak to me about?"

"Jamie and I received an interesting visit from a house-elf named Dobby yesterday."

* * *

Ron saw Harry already sitting at the table. He slid into the seat across from his best friend and grinned widely. "Hey, mate. Glad to be back at Hogwarts?" 

"Yeah, I've been exploring the castle for two days. I found loads of secret passages. It's really cool."

"We'll put those to good use this year, I'll bet."

"Hey, Ron. Wotcher, Harry," Neville greeted tripping over his shoelace and almost tearing the tablecloth from the table. Ron reached out to save the teetering plate, but froze when he heard Harry's calm reply and the plate crashed to the floor.

"The name is Jamie."

"Huh?"

"I go by Jamie now, Nev. It's Jamie Snape. Excuse me."

Ron watched as his best friend walked over to Hermione and whispered something in her ear, unaware that Neville was asking him a question until the other boy waved a hand in front of his face. "What? Oh, sorry, Neville."

"I said when did that happen?" the other boy asked in amazement. "Harry hates Snape."

"Over the summer. It's no big deal," Ron lied, wondering what was going on. He turned to watch the sorting, keeping one eye on his friend who was steadfastly ignoring the whispers going through the house.

* * *

The Second Year boys stayed up late mocking Lockhart's long pathetic speech, and avoided the topic of Harry's adoption by mutual unspoken agreement not to disturb the peace. As they started to yawn and return to their own beds, Dean wondered aloud, "How come the torches are still lit? They usually go off after nine, and it's almost half past eleven." 

"Call a house-elf to fix it," Neville mumbled sleepily from his pillow.

The words had scarcely left his mouth when one of the small beings popped into the room. "Did masters wish something?"

"Fix the torches," Seamus ordered with a long yawn.

"But Master Jamie requested that they be left on."

Everyone turned to look at Harry, who flushed. "You can return the lights to normal, Elna."

"Yes, Master Jamie." As the lights dimmed and a half-choked whimper escaped Harry, Ron felt that tonight would be awful. He would prove to be correct.

* * *

The screams awoke the entire tower. Ron shot out of bed and threw Harry's curtains apart, only to be knocked back by a shimmering light that lit Harry. He saw Neville start forward and called out, "Stop! Don't touch him." Dean gave him a hand up, and he staggered over to the bed. "Harry! Wake up!" The shaking boy didn't seem at all fazed. Footsteps rushed up and down the stairs as the dormitory filled with the whole of Gryffindor house. "Percy, send them back to bed!" His brother ignored him, staring in mute horror. Ron saw Hermione fighting her way through the crowd and he yelled over the din. "Fetch Snape!" Hermione nodded and disappeared.

* * *

Snape was roused from his chair near the fire by very loud knocking. He found a frantic Hermione Granger on the other side. "Harry-er-Jamie, sir. Nightmare." 

Snape followed her to the tower. A crowd filled the room, separating him from the boy. "Go back to bed!" He pointed to Dean, Neville, and Seamus. "You three. Go down to the common room for a few minutes." He moved to the side of the bed and took his charge's shoulders. "Wake up, Jamie. It's safe. The Dursleys can not hurt you anymore." The boy finally awoke and curled into a tiny ball, sobs wracking his body as the violent light disappeared. Snape refused to allow him to hide and put an arm under the boy's back, raising him up slightly. "Jamie, you're safe now."

"She's going to send me back," he whispered so quietly that Snape could barely make out the words.

"No, she isn't. I promised to protect you. You will never have to face the Dursleys again." He sighed and stood, partially lifting the boy out of the bed. "Get dressed. We'll go down to the kitchens for hot cocoa and stop by my office for a sleeping potion. Meet me down in the common room."

"Yes, sir."

Snape shepherded Ron and Hermione out of the dormitory and down the stairs to join the others, informing the boys that they might return as soon as Jamie came down. He noticed Ron's wince. "You tried to touch him, didn't you?"

"Yeah, the light knocked me back."

"It has done far worse."

"Like what?" the boy asked, clearly taken aback.

"Knocked a house-elf out cold and shattered a mirror. Jamie has no control over it when he is asleep."

"But it doesn't affect you."

"Common blood seems to be the key and the blood ritual allows me to wake him." Jamie appeared at the base of the stairs, twisting the material of his robes nervously. "Jamie, come here. You three may go back upstairs." Once the others were gone, he waited for the boy to speak to his friends.

"I'm sorry for waking you."

"That's alright, Jamie," Granger reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder but he flinched away sharply. She stepped back sadly. "I'm sorry."

"My fault, I . . . I . . ."

"It's not your fault. Don't worry about it. Go on with Professor Snape. Ron and I will wait up for you if you like."

"Thanks, Mione."

"Harry-er-Jamie? You know I'll never hurt you, right?" Ron asked nervously.  
"Of course, Ron." Jamie's hand flew over his mouth. "I didn't hurt you, did I? I'm sorry!"

"Of course you didn't hurt me. Go get something to drink. We'll wait for you."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Come along, Jamie."

As Snape guided Jamie out of the common room, he distinctly heard Granger ask Ron, "Now about these house-elves. Who pays them?" He barely contained a smirk at the uncomfortable conversation ahead of the redhead.

* * *

He returned half an hour later carrying Jamie who had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Both of the other Gryffindors were clearly not speaking to each other any longer, so he just carried the boy upstairs and placed him on his bed, lighting the fire in the common room despite the room's warmth. The light would hopefully keep Jamie calm. Ron had followed them upstairs and crashed into his own bed, so ruffling his boy's hair lightly one last time, he left Gryffindor tower.

* * *

Ron groaned as he sank into his chair at the Gryffindor Table. Hermione was reading _Voyages with Vampires_ in between giving him frosty looks. She had not approved of his explanation of house-elves last night, and the loss of sleep had made them both cranky. Harry sat looking down at his plate, but not eating anything as he tried to politely ignore the hyper second year following him with a camera. 

"Mail will be here any second," Neville cheerfully informed them. "Gran is sending me the stuff that I forgot." Neville was famous for his awful memory. "Ah, there it is." Astonishingly enough, the chubby boy managed to catch the lumpy parcel that his owl dropped.

Ron was about to congratulate him on the catch when something large and gray collapsed into the jug of pumpkin juice next to Hermione and flopped out before collapsing on the table unconscious. "Oh, no!"

"It's all right, Ron. He's still alive," Hermione reassured him after making certain that the animal was still breathing.

He didn't even notice that she was speaking to him again. "Not that. THAT!"

The commotion had caught Jamie's attention and eager to escape Colin Creevey, the boy inserted, "What is it?"

"A howler," Neville whispered. "I got one from my gran once. It's awful. Open it quick, Ron, or it'll just get worse."

Ron slit the envelope and clapped his hands over his ears as Neville did the same. He could still hear every word though.

"ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED, RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY! YOU COULD HAVE DIED! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN SEEN! IF YOU SET A TOE OUT OF LINE BETWEEN NOW AND GRADUATION, I'LL GROUND YOU UNTIL YOU'RE A HUNDRED! OF ALL THE FOOLISH THINGS TO DO, YOU'RE TOO YOUNG TO DRIVE!"

It spat out a few more threats before collapsing into a pile of ash in front of him as he sank beneath the table, while the Great Hall rang with applause. Hermione smirked. "Anything you want to confess to, Ron?"

"The twins and I borrowed my Dad's flying car last week while my mum was visiting her sister. I think she found out."

Hermione and Jamie laughed at him all the way down to Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. They met up with Professor Sprout and Lockhart at the door, and Jamie immediately ducked behind them to avoid the man. It was a full five minutes before he shut up about his vast plant knowledge and let an irate Professor Sprout direct them to Greenhouse 3.

"By the way, Professor, I was meaning to have a little chat with Harry Potter. You don't mind if I borrow him now, do you?"

"Harry Potter is not in this class, Gilderoy and I need to go teach. Pleasant morning to you," Sprout gritted through her teeth, sounding as if she wished him anything but. She entered the greenhouse and immediately took roll. "Abbot. Bones. Brown. Finch-Fletchley. Finnegan. Granger. Longbottom. MacMillan. Patil. Snape." She stopped abruptly. "Jamie Snape?"

"Present," Harry-no, Ron caught himself-Jamie answered her."

"Mr. Pot-"

"No, it's Mr. Snape now, Professor." Jamie gave her a winning grin. Ron was amazed by his acting skills. "I got adopted."

Sprout had to swallow a few times, before she managed to choke out, "Congratulations." Then she took the last two names and began her lecture. "Repotting Mandrakes today. Properties of a mandrake, Miss Granger?"

"Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative. Returns individuals to their original state."

"Excellent. The cry of an adult is fatal to all who hear it. As ours are only infants, they won't kill but they can knock you out, so grab a pair of earmuffs people and take the plant from this pot and place it in the other, once I give the command."

Ron looked over to his friend and found him talking to the Hufflepuff muggle-born, Justin Finch-Fletchley. He elbowed him sharply in the ribs and could have kicked himself when he saw Jamie tense. "Sorry. But we need to put on the earmuffs now so we don't miss Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"And why is that a bad thing?" Jamie kidded, to prove that Ron was forgiven.

"Dunno. Hermione would frown upon it."

"Good point."

* * *

Hermione tried to help the boys transfigure a beetle into a button, but Ron was a lost cause. Jamie had picked it up on the second try and now was trying to fix Ron's wand with spellotape. Apparently the landing of the flying car wasn't a soft one and the cracked wand kept emitting violet sparks, but the topic was touchy as the morning's howler was still fresh in his mind. She figured now would not be the time to show him the matching set of eight coat buttons that she had produced, but couldn't resist. 

He got back at her for her success by stealing her schedule and showing Jamie how she had outlined Lockhart's lessons with hearts. She stole it back just as Colin Creevey caught up to them.

"Harry, remember me? I was wondering if I could get a picture of you. I want to prove that I know you. You could sign it for me, so I could show my dad and little brother how I know the boy-who-lived-"

"It's just Jamie," he hurriedly corrected. "And I don't think-"

"You're giving out signed photos, Potter," Pansy Parkinson gasped. "Everyone line up! He's giving out signed photos!"

Draco Malfoy caught her arm and tried to pull her away. "Don't. He's Snape's kid now. Remember?"

"Give Weasley a photo, Potter! It's worth more than his house!" the vile girl shrieked and Hermione grabbed Ron's arm to hold him back. "Go ahead, Weasley. Hit a girl and your mummy will come take you home! Potter can-"

Draco dragged her away, muttering "Sorry, Snape. Won't happen again."

"Am I dreaming? Did Malfoy apologize?" Hermione whispered to Ron, but a shadow fell over them and they turned to face a very handsome Gilderoy Lockhart in turquoise robes.

"Harry Potter, of course, I might have guessed. Go ahead, young man. Take one of the both of us. Can't do much better than that. Lockhart and Potter."

"MY NAME IS SNAPE! JAMIE SNAPE! GET IT STRAIGHT!" Jamie snatched the camera from Colin and stuffed it into Percy's hands. "Cameras aren't allowed in the corridors anyhow." Without another word, he slipped into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and took a seat near the back. Ron slipped into the seat next to him, and Hermione took the front seat, so that she could see-er-hear better.

Once everyone was seated, Lockhart smiled winningly at them all, and pointed to one of the many portraits of himself. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League and five time winner of _Witch Weekly's_ most charming smile award-but I don't like to talk about that. After all, I didn't defeat my opponents by smiling at them." Hermione and the other girls laughed while the boys groaned. "I'm giving a little quiz, not for credit of course. I just want to see how well you read the books. Thirty minutes. Start now."

The quiz was ridiculously easy in Hermione's opinion and she was the only one in the class to get every question right, earning ten points for Gryffindor in the process. It was a pity that his practical lesson got just a little bit out of hand, but it didn't take that long in Hermione's opinion to round up the little blue pixies again, and after all Cornish Pixies were tricky. Jamie and Ron didn't seem to agree and it provoked a long heated discussion on their way up to Gryffindor Tower. But Hermione didn't mind not discussing how Slytherin Jamie's earlier actions had seemed, especially against a little muggleborn first year, and their new Professor. She was very glad to see that Ron seemed to have forgotten about it as well.

* * *

Ron was attempting yet again to transfigure something, anything into a button at dinner, when Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson approached the trio, the latter being pushed by the former. "What do you want?" he growled. 

Parkinson looked at Malfoy entreatingly, but he shook his head and pointed to the dark haired boy. "Sorry, to have insulted you in the corridors and about setting Lockhart on you, Snape. It was just funning, and I'll remember your name in the future," she muttered begrudgingly.

"Thank you, Pansy," Jamie said surprisingly levelly. "I appreciate it."

Her good deed done, the Slytherin girl bolted and Malfoy turned to them now. "I'm sorry that she embarrassed you today. I won't let it happen again, and I explained the situation to Crabbe and Goyle. I would appreciate it if you don't mention the incident to your father."

"I won't," Jamie started, but Ron interrupted.

"Are you saying that you won't harass us anymore?"

"I won't harass Jamie Snape. He has a free pass because of his dad. You two are fair game," Malfoy sneered. "You've got an honorary Slytherin status, Snape. We won't cause problems for you."

"Thanks. Call me Jamie so it doesn't get confusing."

"Draco," the blonde shrugged. "See you in Potions tomorrow."

After the Slytherin boy walked away, Ron stared incredulously at his best friend. "He apologizes and all of a sudden you're on a first name basis with the prince of Slytherin?"

"I'd rather not have any enemies anymore. If Slytherin leaves me alone, then you two won't be targets as often and I'll try to keep them from bothering you at all."

"They're Slytherins! Underhanded, evil, self-serving-"

"Cunning and ambitious is the terms the sorting hat used, Ron. Why waste energy on stupid house rivalries?"

"Because they're Slytherins!"

"And we're Gryffindors. Big deal. Come on, let's hit the library for that Transfiguration essay and then I'll play a couple rounds of chess with you before bed."

Ron let it go for the moment, but didn't give it up completely.

* * *

Hermione had watched Ron clobber their best friend at chess countless times last year, but Jamie seemed to have picked up a trick or two from Snape over the summer. It had taken Ron an hour just to put the king in check and then Jamie came from behind and saved the king while putting Ron's king into checkmate. The rematch was taking even longer and she really wanted to tell them to go to bed, especially after catching Jamie yawn for the fourth time, but he kept putting it off.

When she finally sent them off to bed, she was surprised to have Jamie return to the common room within ten minutes and sit in front of the fire. He wouldn't speak to her and kept pulling away from any possible chance of touch. His rocking made her nervous. It was as if his mind didn't see the common room fire and her. It seemed like he was miles away, hiding in that horrible cupboard back at the Dursleys. The shaking made her nervous, and she tried again to send him to bed, but he suddenly broke into a coughing fit, and pulled out an inhaler. She was surprised to see him use it, but when she tried to ask him about it, he didn't respond.

Then it came to her. "Jamie, are you afraid of the dark?" He nodded hesitantly. The pieces fit then. His nightmare last night, not wanting to go to sleep now. She ran over to the lost and found and pulled out a miniature crystal ball and enchanted it quickly. "Here, Jamie. The light won't go out. You can hang onto that, okay?" She offered it to him, and after a moment of staring at her and then at it, Jamie's fingers closed over it. "Go up and get some sleep." He nodded hesitantly and obeyed. She hoped that it would be better now. "Good night, Jamie."


	5. An Unexpected Protector

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: If you recognize it than it is the property of JKR. Plot and Tanya are mine.**

**A/N: Nothing major, although Finnegan and Thomas fans will be disappointed.**

**Chapter 5: An Unexpected Protector

* * *

**

**The Boy-Who-Lived Has Been Kidnapped!**

_Ten year old, Harry Potter, has been through more than enough trauma in his short lifetime, what with the nasty business of You-Know-Who and the loss of his parents, but just recently, this reporter (**Rita Skeeter**) has discovered that the boy was removed from his loving muggle relatives care and forced to reside with the ill-tempered potionsmaster of Hogwarts, Professor Severus Snape through an illegal blood ritual adoption. Young Davy Dursley confided to me that he ". . . would be absolutely terrified in his shoes. That man looked like a vampire and he just barged into the house. I tried to stop him, but he turned me into a slug and I couldn't do anything." His mother (Harry's aunt) says, "We've had the boy practically his whole life. That awful man has no right to meddle." Sadly the blood ritual seems binding, although the public should rest assured that Minister Fudge has placed nearly the entire ministry on the task of breaking the bond, so that little Harry can go home to his loving relatives._

_Several students wishing to remain anonymous have expressed worry for the boy-who-lived as Snape is a cruel, vindictive teacher, and the epitome of Slytherin. His dungeons are the most feared place in the school, and sadly the our little hero is probably trapped inside them, listening to the sound of rats and dripping water, and longing for the safety of home. For more on Snape's suspected vampire heritage, turn to page 4.

* * *

_

"This is bad," Draco muttered as he left his dormitory. He started toward the Great Hall, but saw Jamie heading there by a different staircase and ran after him. "Jamie!" Draco caught up to the younger boy, and pulled him aside. "The story is in the papers now," he whispered quietly. "It makes Professor Snape look pretty bad. You need to do something perfect family-like before looking at the paper."

"Got any suggestion."

"No."

"Great. Thanks for the heads up." Jamie squared his shoulders, and headed off into the Great Hall, passing the staff table with a cheerful, "Hey, Dad."

"Good morning, Jamie."

Draco waited, but that was it. He grabbed the other boy's shoulder and pulled him towards the Slytherin table. "What was that all about?"

"If I over do it, then it will look suspicious." Jamie calmly sat down and reached for the marmalade. Draco reached for the paper, but Jamie shook his head. "Everybody knows that I don't touch the paper until I've eaten my toast and then I read it while I finish my juice. If you look around everybody is watching me, waiting to see my reaction. If I deviate from my routine, they'll know it's an act."

"But you're already sitting over here."

"My house knows that I had a row this morning with Hermione about house-elf rights."

Draco's mouth opened and closed twice before he choked out, "house-elf rights?" Jamie nodded. "Where does she come up with this stuff?"

"No idea." Jamie gulped down the last of his toast and took a swallow of juice, before taking the paper and scanning it quickly. Then he did something that Draco never expected. He laughed. "Brilliant prank, Draco. How long did it take you to come up with this?"

"It's for real," Draco said, catching on. "I didn't do it."

"Really?" the other boy asked in almost perfect astonishment, then shrugged. "So much for a reputable paper. Didn't even get my name right." He tossed it aside and finished his juice. He stood and started to leave, pausing only to ask Snape. "Hey, Dad, does my being kidnapped constitute a raise in my allowance?"

Snape allowed a bare ghost of a smile that caused a nervous Hufflepuff to faint. "Hardly. It's expensive to rent dungeons and a few hundred rabid rats. Now get to class before the bell, or I'll have to rent medieval torture devices too."

"All right. I'm going. I'm going." But as the boys turned to leave, a flock of owls delivered a huge pile of letters, most of them red.

"Howlers," Draco explained quietly, unsure if the boy would know what they were.

"I know. Ron got one, remember?" He cast a quick freezing spell over the lot, but a late owl dropped off a final howler that went off.

"PROFESSOR SNAPE, I HOPE YOU'RE PUT INTO AZKABAN FOR THIS! A CRIME LIKE THIS DESERVES THE DEMENTOR'S KISS! POOR HARRY POTTER HAS BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH, AND TO THINK OF HIS POOR MUGGLE RELATIVES, WONDERING WHETHER OR NOT HE'S ALL RIGHT! I'D SEND YOU A HEX IF IT WASN'T ILLEGAL TO DO SO THROUGH THE MAIL! POOR HARRY, LOCKED IN YOUR DUNGEONS, I HOPE THE AURORERS HAVE FUN TAKING YOU IN, YOU FOUL SLYTHERIN PIECE OF FILTH! ANGRILY, MADAME HILLSHIRE OF SHERRY!"

Snape looked amused. Jamie looked shocked. Draco saw him struggle for words, before blurting out, "I don't live in a dungeon. Letters addressed to Harry Potter, Hogwarts Dungeons will not reach me."

"It's all right, Harry," Seamus whispered casting a furtive look at Snape. "We'll rescue you."

"I don't need rescuing!" But Finnegan had already left.

Draco smirked. "May I be of service? My two bodyguards are at your command."

Jamie looked down sadly. "Thanks, I think I may end up needing them.

* * *

Draco ended up stationing Crabbe and Goyle at Jamie's side for the remainder of the day. During Potions, he partnered with Jamie, daring anyone, Slytherin or Gryffindor to challenge him or say something to Jamie about Seamus's betrayal. Professor Snape entered, robes billowing behind him, eyes searching for Jamie as unobtrusively as possible. When he found the boy at Draco's desk, he raised an eyebrow at the pair, but continued to the front. "We're brewing a powerful truth potion today. This truth potion is more useful than veritaserum because you do not have to spike a person's drink to get the truth you desire. You merely have to splash some on the individual in question. It will then compel them to answer any four questions that are asked of them. As it takes an extremely strong-willed person to resist it, any tomfoolery will result in a month of detentions. This potion is also poisonous so I will not tolerate stupidity. Do you all understand?"

The class was wise enough to remain silent, so he transferred the directions to the board and stepped back to watch and teach and intimidate.

While Professor Snape harassed Longbottom, Draco guided Jamie through the motions of brewing, double-checking every step the younger boy completed, as Jamie's mind was obviously not on the potion. Blaise and Pansy sat on one side of them. Crabbe and Goyle on the other with Weasley and Granger directly behind, blocking any brewing 'accidents' from the angry Gryffindors (or an incompetent Longbottom), but he wasn't expecting Finnegan to hurl a glass vial of the potion across the dungeon as soon as Snape stepped into his office.

In the shocked silence that followed the shattering, Dean asked aloud, "Did it work?"

"Yes," Jamie answered in a frightened whisper.

"Cool," Seamus interrupted excitedly. "How did Snape force you into this, Harry?"

"My name is Jamie," the dark haired boy whispered. "And he didn't force me. All he did was ask me if I would like him to adopt me. I said yes. It's nice to be wanted." The hurt in Jamie's voice was palatable.

Draco cringed. The next question would be why he thought that the muggles didn't want him, and spilling out the closely guarded secrets for the public's view would likely cause an emotional breakdown in the boy after everything else the boy had been through, whatever it was he had suffered.

But at that precise moment Longbottom's cauldron melted, and emitted a thick waft of smoke. Immediately Jamie started coughing hard, and gasped for breath. He fumbled in his pocket for his inhaler and turned away from the smoke to use it. Thomas looked at it in confusion and asked, "What the heck is that for?"

Jamie had to drop the inhaler to answer. "It's an inhaler. It gives me medication for my asthma." He broke off in a fit of coughing, having breathed in the smoke and dove for the inhaler again. Draco banished the smoke from the area around their desk just as Snape reentered the classroom and immediately thundered a demand for who was responsible for the mess. "Neville's cauldron melted, sir. But it's not his fault. He got sidetracked when Seamus threw a vial of the potion at me."

Snape looked ready to burst a blood vessel. "Finnegan and Thomas. Detention for the next month to be split between Filch and me. Longbottom, you will receive a P instead of a D for ending the questioning, if that is acceptable?" The terrified second year nodded frantically. "Finnegan and Thomas, report to the Headmaster's office, the rest of you-" He was interrupted by another violent bout of coughing from Jamie. "Class dismissed. Come on, Jamie, hospital wing."

"Okay, Dad," Jamie said tiredly, leaning against the man, but paused next to the two troublemakers. "My secrets are none of your business, and I can't believe two of my own housemates would do something like that to me," his voice shook in anger and a little fear.

Finnegan looked up angrily. "You're no Gryffindor, SNAPE. A Gryffindor wouldn't rat us out or take up with Malfoy and Snape."

Draco spoke before Professor Snape. "You're the idiots who gave him a truth potion that forced him to answer the Professor's question." He ran out after the father and son. Jamie had been shell-shocked by Finnegan's words and dumbly allowed them to lead him up to the Hospital Wing. "Is he going to be okay, Professor?"

"Just find Madame Pomfrey, please, Draco."

The nurse was quick with her examination, and assured Snape that there would be no long-lasting ill effects from the smoke or the potion. "He'll need to take it easy for a day or so. Stick to his tower after classes-"

"They don't want me anymore." The words slipped out of the boy who had been silent up until now. "They don't want me!" Jamie threw the bedside tray next to him across the room and leapt to his feet. "They pulled a foul trick on me, and then . . . and then . . ." He collapsed onto the floor and began to cry. "They don't want me."

Draco was shocked to see his potions teacher kneel on the floor and gather the sobbing boy to him, but it didn't stop him from following the older man's lead and trying to comfort the devastated child. "It's okay, Jamie. They're common oft-times vulgar louts. You can always stay in the Slytherin dorms if you need to. Don't worry about it." After a few minutes, he was pulled away by Madame Pomfrey to explain the situation. Professor Snape lifted the small boy who seemed to have cried himself to sleep and carried him out.

Madame Pomfrey was outraged at the students' behavior. "The very idea!" She turned silent. "Draco, I do not normally condone this, but those two need a lesson. I confiscated these from the Weasley Twins earlier." She produced two brightly colored toffees from her pocket. "They have a rather interesting effect, and if you can find a way to get those boys to eat them, I can misplace the instructions to return their tongues to normal."

"I like the way you think, Madame. And don't worry, I'll get them to eat it." He skidded out of the hospital wing and almost ran into Granger and Weasley. "His dad took him somewhere, but I have a question for you two. Do you side with Jamie or your other housemates?"

"Jamie of course," Granger answered stuffily.

"Enough to cause those two some, er, discomfort?"

"What do you have in mind?" Weasley asked, leaning forward eagerly.

"I think you and I may get along yet, Weasley," Draco smirked and outlined the plan for them.

"We're so in. This'll be brilliant."

* * *

Snape checked back in his chambers off the staff room after dinner and found the boy to still be asleep. He sat in the chair next to the bed and waited for him to wake up. He was in a rather good mood. Somehow the two Gryffindors had mysteriously sprouted purple four foot long tongues during dinner, and had been unable to counter it as of yet. He suspected the Weasley Twins had a hand in this, perhaps recruited by Draco along with the other two-thirds of the Golden Trio. So after collaring the two purple-tongued boys and loudly deducting twenty points each from Gryffindor for disturbing dinner, he awarded ten points to Draco, and five points to each Gryffindor for seeing that justice was fully served. He had left the two bullies with Filch tonight, but looked forward to scaring them the next evening, but that could wait until Jamie was not so upset.

* * *

Draco was attracted to a corridor on Thursday night, after hearing loud accusing yells, and no response. He was disgusted to find Finnegan pinning Jamie Snape to the floor and punching him. "Get off him, Finnegan!" Moments later the weight was lifted from the little boy's back and Jamie hesitantly allowed his rescuer to help him to his feet. "Are you alright?" Jamie nodded, head bowed in shame of having to be rescued yet again. "That's not good enough, Jamie. Look me in the eye and tell me so that I know for sure." When Jamie didn't move, Draco took his chin and tilted his face up, hissing with displeasure when he saw the bruise spreading across Jamie's face, his eye already dark. Draco swung around and shouted, **"Freeze!"** Finnegan stopped short, looking quite terrified. Draco stalked over to him and threw a punch that Finnegan didn't even try to block. He heard the satisfying crack of bone and wiped off his hand. "If you ever touch him again, I'll break more than your nose. He has done nothing to deserve the way you lot are treating him. My house is more loyal than you pathetic Gryffindor's." He left the boy on the floor and returned to Jamie. "Hospital Wing. Now."

* * *

Madame Pomfrey gave Jamie a mild pain-relieving potion and dismissed them with orders to go directly to Severus's quarters, but upon reaching the rooms, found them to be empty. Draco took that as a sign to begin teaching Jamie some self-defense.

"Why do you just let people hit you?"

"I deserve it. I'm a freak."

Draco hadn't expected that answer. "Who the heck told you that?"

"Uncle Vernon."

Draco knew the muggles had been unfit guardians, probably abusive from the way that the tiny teen acted, but to say something like that to a kid, to drill it into their head so that they don't even question being attacked . . . he couldn't imagine anyone doing something so cruel. "Stupid muggle. You don't deserve to be hit. No one does unless they take joy in hurting other people. If anybody ever does it again come and find either me or Professor Snape. I mean it. Just get away and run. I don't care how, kick, bite, or scream as hard as you can if necessary. But get away and find one of us."

"I couldn't get away," Jamie whispered.

Draco wondered if he was talking about Finnegan or about his uncle, but let the matter go. "The midsection is every human's weak point. Haul your elbow back real hard. Right into their midsection. Just like this." Jamie nodded and mimicked his actions. "Right. As soon as you're free, run."


	6. A New Way of Life

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: You'll be the first to know if JKR sells me the rights, but until then anything recognizable belongs to her.**

**Chapter 6: A New Way of Life**

Ron and Hermione were waiting in the stands when the Gryffindor team finally poured out of the locker room, but found that the team hadn't even started yet. Jamie looked asleep on his broom. But the boredom didn't last long until the Slytherins showed up. Since the Gryffindor team looked pretty angry, Ron figured that this wasn't planned and started after them. By the time he got out of the stands the two teams were facing off and glaring angrily at . . . Malfoy.

"That's right, Weasley. New Slytherin Seeker. Plus new brooms." He held his out.

"Nimbus 2001s! Those are the very latest," he gasped in awe.

"Well at least no one on Gryffindor had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent," Hermione informed them loftily.

Malfoy's face caved for half a second before he spat "No one asked your opinion, mudblood!"

Ron forgot everything about Malfoy being Jamie's protector and lunged for his wand. "You'll pay for that, Malfoy!" He twisted between his brothers who had tried to jump Malfoy and yelled the first curse to enter his brain. It didn't go as expected. Belching slugs would have been an excellent punishment, except for the fact that the wand had hit him with the curse instead. The next thing he knew, Jamie and Hermione were dragging him to Hagrid's and telling him the whole story (Hermione) and shaking with fear induced by the earlier violence (Jamie).

"He called me a mudblood, Hagrid," Hermione said softly, and Ron could see that she was trying to hold back tears.

"He didn't!" Hagrid put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't you think on it, Hermione."

Ron saw Jamie open his mouth to say something and then close it. "Gotta go. See you later." With that the little boy was gone, and the rest of them stared in confusion.

* * *

Draco was just finishing practice and grateful to be heading for a shower when he saw the dark haired boy bolt from Hagrid's hut and with a sigh raced after him. With what he was learning about Dumbledore's golden boy, Draco knew that almost anything could frighten him out of his wits. If his friends hadn't watched what they were saying or doing, they might have accidentally upset him. He caught up to the boy and made sure that Jamie saw him before he touched the boy's shoulder. "Are you okay?" 

"I'm fine," came the short answer.

"You didn't get hit back there or anything, did you?" Draco asked worriedly. Jamie shook his head. "They scared you though didn't they? When they jumped at me and tried to start a fight?"

"A little. What did you say to cause such a reaction? They were so mad," the boy trailed off looking even more lost and confused than usual.

"You don't know what a**mudblood** is!"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Draco stopped him with a light touch on the shoulder, drawing away before the boy had a chance to register the contact and flinch. "It's okay, Jamie. I was surprised. That's all. Mudblood is a rude name for someone who is muggleborn. The opposite of a pureblood, understand?"

"But why did you call her that if you knew it would make everyone mad at you?"

Draco sighed. "Promise not to tell anyone, and especially the rest of your little trio? She hurt me. I worked very hard to get on the Slytherin team and my father didn't buy the brooms until after I made it, and she made it sound like I did nothing but beg my rich father to put me on the team. It made me very angry and I wanted to get back at her for it. It's instinct for humans to try to hurt people who hurt them."

"You did. She was crying."

"Good. I didn't feel too happy when she slighted me either."

"I wish everyone just got along. Hagrid and Ron were looking for me to say something, but I didn't understand and I didn't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything, Jamie. If you don't understand, ask and I'll explain it from my point of view. Then you can decide who is right."

Jamie didn't look convinced. "You were both wrong. She said something cruel to you but she didn't think that it would upset you. Your feelings were hurt, so you lashed out at her."

Draco shrugged. "If that's how you want to view it, fine." He started to walk away, but turned back. "Just so you know, Lockhart is looking for you. Detention for the hallway incident. Apparently you've been dodging him the last few days and doing a good job of it."

"My luck is about to run out," Jamie sighed. "He's the monitor for lunch today, and Professor Snape will have a fit if I skip a meal."

Draco frowned and thought for a moment. "Tell you what, I'll get him to give me a detention too. That way you're not alone with the idiot."

"Thanks, Draco. I appreciate it."

* * *

Detention was a royal pain in the neck. Lockhart had them answer his fan mail, while offering lame bits of advice to Jamie on being famous. After the first fifteen minutes of watching him pat Jamie's shoulder every two minutes and the younger boy cringing away, Draco moved to Jamie's other side and placed himself between the obnoxious professor and his new friend. Jamie couldn't do anything for himself anymore. Harry Potter was gone from the abused and confused preteen. He watched the clock carefully and adjusted the way he sat to hide the fact that Jamie had fallen asleep against the desk ages ago, and took over the little boy's task of addressing the envelopes before he stuffed the envelopes. Lockhart was oblivious to it all as he droned on about some doxy infestation he had cleared out of an old castle. If any of it was true, Draco would eat his brand new broomstick. 

All of a sudden, Jamie bolted upright. "Did you hear that?"

"What?"

"The voice. It sounded . . . didn't you hear it?"

"Must have dozed off, Harry, lad. Why don't you two toddle off to bed? I'll see you on Monday." Lockhart ushered them out of the office saying some inane thing about not expecting such a treat every time they received detention. Draco silently wished that the next time he got a detention, he could debone rats for Professor Snape instead. Dead rats couldn't babble on and on.

As soon as they were out of hearing distance, Draco turned to Jamie and asked what had happened.

"I don't know. There was this voice. It said something about killing."

"I didn't hear anything. I think that you may have had a nightmare. Did Professor Snape give you any dreamless sleep potion?"

"No."

"Alright. Let's go see him and get you some, okay?"

"Yeah," the little boy whispered tiredly, leaning against the taller boy's shoulder. Draco guided him down to the teachers' room and with a few words secured the potion for Jamie. As he walked the boy up to Gryffindor Tower, he observed Jamie remove a brightly lit sphere from his pocket to light their way. "Hermione made it for me. I'm scared of the dark," the boy confided half-asleep already.

"Don't blame you. Here we are. Don't forget to drink that before you go to bed." As he finished saying this, Weasley appeared nursing his right arm. "Oi, Weasley!"

"Where were you, Ron?"

"Detention with Filch for befouling the castle," Ron complained.

"Look, Weasley, I have to go. Make sure that Jamie drinks this before he goes to sleep." He secured a response from the reluctant redhead and headed for the dungeons as fast as he could. Granger had a good idea with that light. He might be able to improve on that.

* * *

Draco dashed up to the Staff's Quarters after lessons and bargained with Flitwick to allow him in to see Jamie. With October had come cold weather and the annual epidemic of colds among students and staff. Most were fine with a simple dose of Pepper-up potion although the Weasley girl looked like her head was on fire with the steam coming out her ears. Jamie had been hit hard with a cold and sore throat that turned into mild bronchitis. Apparently that in combination with his asthma was a bad thing, so Jamie got off of school for a week. Most students would be sent home or confined to the hospital room, but Snape had managed to get Jamie out of the hospital wing by the end of the first day, and set him up in the guestroom of his apartment. It was rapidly turning into Jamie's room as his stuff gravitated down there. 

When Draco entered, he found the raven-haired boy fast asleep curled into the nest of pillowcases and covered with a thicker than usual blanket. His skin was paler than Draco's but his cheeks and forehead flushed pink and the kid looked totally exhausted. Draco knew that Snape would kill him if he woke Jamie, so he dropped into the chair at the side of the bed and started his Transfiguration Essay. He finally finished and started the inane crossword for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Honestly, how would finding sixteen Gilderoy Lockharts help them if attacked anyway?

A wild and disheveled pair of Gryffindors tumbled into the room babbling on about Nearly-Headless Nick and the headless huntsmen, Sir Patrick something or other. Draco leapt up and clapped his hands over their mouths, hissing, "Shut up! Jamie's asleep!"

But it was too late. Jamie started tossing and turning and with a startled whimper jerked awake. "I'm up, Aunt Petunia. I'm up." Then upon sighting them and working out where he was, he blushed and wrapped his arms around his knees protectively. "Sorry." Draco glared at the Granger and Weasley with a You-did-it-so-you-fix-it shrug. Granger sat on the side of the bed and wrapped an arm around Jamie, discretely pulling the blanket up further around him. Jamie shrugged away, but didn't move the blanket, so Draco ransacked the dresser for something warm, and ended up pulling out a worn but beautifully knit sweater, crafted by the Weasley matriarch no doubt. Jamie reluctantly put it on, knowing better than to try and argue the point, before settling back among the pillows for a little while. He was too twitchy to stay there and sat up again as Ron sat on the opposite side of him. "What's up?"

"We just ran into Nick, and received the most interesting invitation," Hermione gushed. "The Five Hundredth Anniversary of his deathday is on Halloween, and he's holding a fancy party with ghosts from around the continent. I've never heard of a living person attending one before."

Ron snorted. "Sort of depressing to me. Nick just wants us all there to tell Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore how scary he is. Apparently he can't join the Headless Hunt since his head wasn't completely whacked off. But Hermione is all enchanted, so we said that we'd go. You're coming too, right?"

"Are you insane, Weasley? The deathday party will be in the lower dungeons. It's absolutely frigid down there. Jamie's got bronchitis!"

"It's not until Halloween. Jamie will be fine long before then," Ron dismissed the concern.

"A relapse could send him to St. Mungos, you idiot!"

"Who are you calling an idiot?"

"Stop," Jamie begged. "Please don't. I don't want you to fight any-" A fit of coughing interrupted him, and quickly turned into a gasping for air. He fumbled for his inhaler and inhaled the medicine. A second dose allowed his breathing to calm down a bit. "Please don't fight. Ron, of course I want to come, but Dray's right. I can't get sick like this again so soon. I'd need Professor Snape's permission too. Maybe if I'm feeling really good that night and I bundle up really really good, he'll say that it's okay and I can make it. Okay? Are you both satisfied?"

Draco nodded even though he wasn't. "If you go than I'm coming with you. Snape will kill us all if something happened to you down there." To their credit, neither Granger nor Weasley tried to protest immediately. Maybe they saw the futility of it. Or not. Ron leaned over behind Jamie and whispered something to Granger that he couldn't catch, but judging from Jamie's blush couldn't be good.

Snape came in and kicked Granger out for a moment. Jamie quickly shed the jumper and unbuttoned the sweaty pajama top, before lying back down. Snape dipped his fingers in a tin of strong smelling ointment and rubbed it gently into his son's chest. Once finished, he tucked Jamie back into the bed, and allowed the Gryffindors to say good-bye. As Draco left he looked back one more time. Jamie lay on his side already half asleep as Snape rubbed small circles on his back to relax him. Draco watched longingly for half a second longer before heading back down into the dungeons.

* * *

Snape sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose while struggling for patience. Having realized that Jamie intended to go to Quidditch practice in the old cloak that had somehow been torn straight up the back and was too long for him anyway, he had caught yet another problem. He wished that he had realized it beforehand as it might have prevented the episode of bronchitis. "Do you possess any cold weather appropriate clothing that actually fits you?" 

Jamie looked down at his feet ashamedly. "A sweater that Mrs. Weasley made me for Christmas last year. The school cloak didn't come any shorter, and Dudley's old things were at least twice my size."

Snape felt his chest clench. Did the Dursley's have any sense of decency at all? Jamie had been out of their home for three months. Yet traces of the damage they did to the boy showed up daily. "Then you'll have to accompany me to Diagon Alley tomorrow so we can get you some."

* * *

Coaxing the boy to allow him to spend money on 'unnecessary' things such as clothes for the child had taken awhile, but it had been worth the look of pleasure on Jamie's face at the warmth of the fitted cloak. The coat was two layers of thin navy fleece and fitted to the boy's skinny frame. The cloak was lined with the same under black silk and included a hood. Along with a pair of green wool gloves and new sturdy dragon hide boots; he looked like a normal wizarding eight-year-old child, due to his small stature. Snape hoped that he would grow out of that. He was slowly starting to put on weight, having gained five pounds during his stay with Snape. 

Jamie fingered the soft material of his new cloak before pulling his gloves on and looking up at Snape with shining eyes. "Thank you, sir."

It wasn't fair. A twelve year old should not have been thankful for warm clothes. He should have taken it for granted and immediately turned to Quidditch Gear. "You're welcome, Jamie. I need to stop at the apothecary, but if you would like to go with Madame Hooch to Quality Quidditch Supplies . . ."

"No thanks." The boy didn't like being away from Snape's side in such a crowded place with openly antagonistic people like the ones who had sent the howlers. "What ingredients are you getting?" Jamie asked excitedly to change the subject. "I bet that I can guess what potion you're brewing from the ingredients."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Apricot pits, shredded daisy root, eye of newt, smoke of hebenus, phoenix tears, and crystallized wintergreen leaves."

"Apricot pits . . . eye of newt . . . common brew ingredients. Smoke of Hebenus . . . used to calm, relax, or to put to sleep, and is common in healing potions as the shredded daisy root and phoenix tears dictate the potion to be. But which one? Crystallized wintergreen leaves?" Snape nodded in response. "I don't know that one, but it would change the potion from a runny to a smooth consistency. Let's see. Emendio maybe? No. Well, wintergreen had dark green leaves and white berries with a deep red core. So the potion would be red . . . oh! I've got it! It's Dreamless Sleep."

"You do pay attention in Potions," Snape remarked bemusedly. "I thought that last ingredient would stump you."

"I should have thought of Dreamless Sleep right off," Jamie said in disgust. "I drink it at least once a week."

"I'm impressed that you analyzed the ingredients correctly. Would you retrieve the more common ingredients, while I speak with Gladius about the phoenix tears and the smoke of Hebenus? Then we'll step into the backroom and watch the crystallization process."

"You got it."

As Jamie dashed off down the aisle, cloak fluttering in his wake, the elderly witch inspecting unicorn horns smiled after him. "Your little boy is absolutely adorable."

Snape stared at her for half of a second before nodding. "Yes, he is very special."

"He looks just like you. How old is he? Nine or Ten?"

Jamie had just turned twelve not too long ago, but Snape nodded at the witch. "He's short for his age."

"Children are such a gift. Take good care of him."

"I certainly intend to. Have a good day, ma'am." As he searched out Gladius, he thought about the witches error. Jamie could pass for someone as young as eight. His longer hair and pale skin disguised him well. A mild glamour would take care of the scar and hadn't the woman thought that they looked enough alike to be a real father and son. He could move away, somewhere safe, where no one knew about Jamie's past, so that the boy could grow up safe and away from both the Daily Prophet and Howlers. Snape shook his head and continued on his way. Nothing short of the fidelus charm could protect them from the long arm of the ministry and there was no one to trust with such a secret, as Albus would never approve.

Jamie joined them in the back a few moments later triumphant and turned the jars of potion ingredients over to Snape eagerly. "Did I get it right?"

"Perfect, Jamie. Thank you. This is Gladius Maverhock, Potionsmaster Second Class. Gladius, this is my son Jamie." Gladius knew better than to ask questions and merely nodded in acknowledgement.

Jamie smiled shyly and whispered, "Nice to meet you, sir," half-ducking behind Snape's robes.

Gladius actually smiled at the boy and pulled a stool over to his worktable. "Have a seat, lad. Your father says that you're interested in the crystallization process." Jamie obeyed and watched intently as a sprig of wintergreen was placed on the table. "Brumente le caedesis." The greenery slowly grew thin layers of ice until frozen solid. Gladius tapped it with his wand. "Crystallize." A soft golden glow filled the ice and then it shattered with a blast of bright red light leaving a delicate crystal replica of the plant. "Wingardium leviosa." The plan floated into a black lined box, carefully cushioned. "There you are my boy. If you follow in your father's footsteps, you will be able to cast that spell long before you need it for the N.E.W.T.S."

With a compliment like that, it was obvious that Gladius who seldom approved of anyone actually liked the boy. "Jamie, will you run and fetch a traveling box from the front showcase please?"

"Yes, sir."

Once the boy was out of hearing distance, Snape turned to Gladius. "I will permit one question."

"How old is Jamie?"

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Twelve."

"I expect he will be a potionsmaster by the age of twenty."

"You always surprise me, Gladius. Don't you read the Daily Prophet? Surely you are aware . . ."

"That I was introduced to your son this after noon and found him to be an intelligent, well-mannered young man with a mindset for potions analysis? Of course, Severus."

Snape smirked. Gladius would be an excellent witness should the minister follow through on his threat to drag them all to court. As far as the old man was concerned, Harry Potter had never existed and Jamie Snape always had. "Have a pleasant day, Gladius. I'll be back before Christmas for my storeroom orders."

"The same to you, Severus."


	7. The Chamber of Secrets

**Author's Note: This is a really long chapter, almost twice as long as my typical ones, but there just wasn't a really good place to break it off in the middle, so it remains one of the longest chapters in the story. Aaannndd, I am so completely bored and totally procrastinating doing the dishes, that I've decided to give you another chapter on top of this one, so with out further ado, I present two chapters; "The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened" and "Quidditch".**

**Disclaimer: I do not own, and the message on the wall comes from JK Rowlings "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." Binns' explanation and Filch's reaction were paraphrased from the aforementioned book and I attempt not to do so if at all possible.**

**Warning: Snape and Jamie actually sit down and discuss the Dursley's so memories of Child Abuse and Neglect. Mild British Language.

* * *

**

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel

* * *

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**Chapter 7: The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened**

"Brr. Why is Filch giving you that look, Har-er-Jamie?" Hermione caught herself just in time.

"I, uh, kind of read one of his letters." Jamie hurried to defend himself. "It was lying open on the mail table and all fancy. I thought that it was some sort of notice. It was just something about a kwikspell course."

Ron sprayed pumpkin juice across the table. "Filch does kwikspell? He's a squib? That's rich!"

Hermione saw Jamie open his mouth but close it again and turn away. "Jamie?" He turned back reluctantly, pleading in his eyes not to ask him anything. So she changed the subject. "Are you feeling good enough to go to the deathday party tonight?"

Jamie nodded half-heartedly. Rumor had it that Dumbledore booked a troupe of dancing skeletons, and the house-elves had been in a frenzy all week to cook up the treats. Malfoy had been sure to inform them of every last detail in an attempt to derail the plan to attend the party, but Hermione couldn't let an opportunity like this pass them up. "Yeah, Professor Snape bought me some new warm clothes so I'm all set. We'll head down after last class?"

"Yes. Tell Malfoy, if he's still insistent on coming with us."

"I'm right here Granger. And yes, I'm going down with you all."

Hermione ignored him and joined Ron just ahead when she heard Jamie ask, "Draco, what's a squib?"

"Opposite of a mudblood. Muggle born to Wizard parents. Where did you hear it?"

"Ron."

Hermione turned red and tuned out the rest of the conversation. She was a little hurt that Jamie didn't feel safe asking them questions, but could ask Malfoy. Those muggles really messed up her best friend.

* * *

"Well, that was a complete and total waste of time!" Draco sniffed. "Let's get back to the feast before all of the decent food is gone." For once, it appeared that Weasley agreed with him, but Jamie stopped short, apparently listening to something. "Jamie?"

"Do you hear it? It's that voice again! It's going to hurt someone!" Jamie took off running and Draco set off after him.

"Jamie, stop! Get a teacher!" he shouted after him, but it didn't so much as pause the younger boy as he searched desperately for the source of whatever he heard.

"It's coming from the walls or something!" He stopped short and Draco almost ran into him, barely stopping in time.

The floor was covered with a pool of water. Foot high letters painted in some sort of silver paint read 'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED! ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE!' Hanging from a torch bracket by her tail was the much-reviled Mrs. Norris apparently frozen solid, her eyes open and accusing.

Weasley spoke first. "Let's get out of here."

"We need to help," Jamie started in confusion. "Mrs. Norris . . ."

"We don't want to be found here, kid," Draco insisted, starting to pull Jamie and the mudblood away.

"What does it mean?" Jamie whimpered in fear from his friend's reaction.

"It means that if Granger values her life, she'll go home tonight." It was too late for them to escape the area. A thunder of feet said that the feast was over and waves of people were upon them seconds later, a shouting Filch and all of the prefects at the head.

"What is going on here?" At the sight of his cat, the man purpled. "Mrs. Norris?" He rounded on Jamie and grabbed him up by the throat. "You've killed my cat!"

A black shadow slipped past Draco and freed Jamie, shifting the small boy's weight to his hip. "Keep your hands off my son, Filch." Snape's tone was so murderously low that it threatened any number of painful things to the man who had set off Jamie's trembling and soon desperate use of the inhaler.

"Not now. Come with me. You three too. Everyone else get to bed!" Dumbledore ordered, freeing Mrs. Norris. Lockhart directed them to his office looking self-important. While Dumbledore and McGonagall examined the cat with Filch crying and Lockhart saying stupid things meant to be comforting, Draco focused on Snape and Jamie.

The younger boy rocked back and forth on Snape's lap, but pulled away from all of his friends' touch. Unconsciously his hand went to the bruises forming around his throat. Snape gently pulled it away. "Don't. I'll take care of it soon." Jamie nodded unhearing, staring into space almost in shock. "Jamie? Look at me," Snape ordered firmly, turning the boy's face to him.

The blank expression caved and full realization sank in. "He . . . he hurt me!" Jamie gasped but not from asthma, from the fact that the statement was true. Another adult, a Hogwarts employee had hurt him in full sight of hundreds of people. "He hurt me! He grabbed my throat and . . . and . . ." He subsided into tears, burying his face in Snape's robes. "Why do people keep trying to hurt me? I never did anything."

Snape held onto him tightly. "No, of course you didn't. It won't happen again. I won't let it." Only once Jamie had cried himself to sleep, did Snape lay him on the sofa and join the group of Professors around the desk.

Draco shifted so that he could see both Jamie and the professors. Dumbledore looked at them solemnly. "She is not dead. She has been petrified but how, I can not say."

"He did it! He knows that I'm a squib!"

"No second year could have performed such a dark piece of advanced magic, Argus. Jamie must have stumbled onto Mrs. Norris, perhaps frightened off the attacker and saving her life."

"My cat has been petrified! I want to see some bloody punishment!" Filch shouted, his tearstained face blotches of four shades of purple and three of red.

"I think that what you did is more than enough punishment for anything," Snape said coldly, gesturing to where Jamie lay asleep curled unconsciously into a tiny protective ball, his face tearstained and troubled. "Rest assured, Filch, that if it was not for your understandable upset at Mrs. Norris's condition, I would throttle you bare-handed and without the aid of a wand for daring to lay hands on my son. As soon as Sprout's mandrakes are ready, I will brew the antidote personally for Mrs. Norris so she can hunt down troublesome students by your side once again, though I expect an apology to Jamie before then."

"I will do it," Lockhart offered enthusiastically. "I've brewed it hundreds of times. I expect that I could do it in my sleep after all of these years."

"I do believe that I am the potionsmaster of Hogwarts," Snape sneered.

"Well, yes. Yes, of course, Severus. Quite right. I just thought I'd offer to help. Love to be of service, you know," Lockhart stuttered, blathering on for a while.

"Shut up, Gilderoy!" Snape snapped. "Headmaster, I'll leave the other Gryffindors with you for an account of the evening, but I'm going to go put my son to bed. He'll be staying in my chambers tonight. Draco can come with me. I'd like to know what's going on too."

"Of course, Severus. I apologize for what happened to Jamie. He can be excused from his classes tomorrow."

"Thank you, Albus. Come along, Draco." Snape scooped up Jamie and left the office with Draco trailing after.

* * *

Snape sat in the chair beside Jamie's bed. Albus had offered to cover his classes so he could sit with Jamie today. After last night, he couldn't put off talking about what those despicable muggles had done to the boy. Plus he wanted to hear an account of what had happened last night from Jamie, so he could hopefully determine why no one but Jamie could hear this mysterious voice.

Very carefully, he shook the boy's shoulder to wake him, and said calmly, "Good morning, Jamie."

"Good morning, sir," the boy said shyly. "What time is it?"

"Ten after ten. The headmaster has excused you from today's classes. The house-elves brought up a tray for you, so why don't you start in on your breakfast. Then I want to talk to you about a few things."

The boy dutifully pulled the tray to him and ate a few bites, but mostly pushed the food around. After he finally pushed the tray away without eating half of it, Snape vanished the tray and prompted the boy to sit up more.

"I want you to tell me about the muggles. And about what they did to you."

Jamie's eyes grew large. "Please, sir-"

"I know that you don't want to talk about it. I don't blame you. But I need to know in order to help you. I do not want what happened last night to repeat itself and Argus Filch has been warned in the most descriptive of terms and in several languages about what would happen to certain parts of his anatomy, should he ever touch you again."

"You'll know what a freak I am," Jamie whispered, tears in his eyes. "You won't want me anymore."

Snape was pleased to know that the boy finally felt wanted, but disheartened that the boy thought that he could lose it so easily. "The adoption was permanent. I've become quite fond of your company, actually. No matter what you do, you will always be Jamie Snape for as long as you choose to be. No matter what those muggles told you, that will never change."

"They called me a freak, an abnormality. They said I deserved to be punished and that I ought to be grateful to them for taking me in. They barely fed me even when I was little and they made me live in a cupboard!"

Snape blinked. "A cupboard?"

"The one under the stairs. They only let me have Dudley's second bedroom when my Hogwarts letter arrived. They thought that they were being watched. I used to sleep in the cupboard and they would lock me in it for days if I did any accidental magic, but I didn't even know what I was doing, because they told me that magic didn't exist. They tried to beat it out of me." Tears started to trickle down Jamie's face, but now that the dam had been broken the words came as a flood. "They hated me! I never did anything to them, but they hated me! I was their slave, worse than a house-elf."

Snape focused on one thing. "Tell me about the chores."

"I had to do inside and outside chores before my Uncle got home, or I would be punished and sent to the cupboard without eating. It was always this huge long list that was impossible for an adult to get through. I always had to clean the entire house, and weed the garden, mow the grass or shovel the walk. Then there'd be other things on the list like paint the fence or clean the shed and the attic. I could never finish them. It was too hard. If I did get dinner, it was the stuff that they couldn't eat or didn't like. I only got breakfast if I burned theirs. They'd force me to eat it since 'I had no appreciation for the value of food.' I had to make breakfast since I was four years old. And the stove always burned me. Dudley knocked me into it on purpose." Jamie lifted the hem of his shirt and showed a smooth raised scar on his stomach in a half-circle. "I was making scrambled eggs and standing on the chair. Dudley shoved me and the skillet burned me. Aunt Petunia made me finish breakfast first and then made me sit in a cold bath until it didn't hurt anymore."

"You told me about her baths before. Is there anything else that you omitted?"

"Only that after I could bathe myself, I wasn't allowed hot water or more than ten minutes in the bathroom. The first time I showered at Hogwarts, I stayed in there for three-quarters of an hour under the hottest water I could stand."

"Your bathroom at the manor is your own to use as you please. At Hogwarts, there is a whirlpool in our apartment and you are welcome to use it at any time. No one will prevent you from doing so." Snape sat back and thought about what he had just been told. "I do not want you to continue believing that you are a freak. There are millions of witches and wizards throughout the entire world, and you are certainly not abnormal for being one yourself. They did nothing deserving your gratitude, so you owe them absolutely nothing. If for some reason you have misbehaved in a way that demands punishment, I will determine an appropriate one. Such punishments will not deprive you of food, hot water, your bedroom, or cause harm to your person. I find that preparing some of the more noxious potions ingredients is unusually effective on teenagers. Should that not suffice, an earlier curfew or loss of flying privileges certainly will. Do you feel that any of these punishments are unfair?"

"No, sir. But I promise not to ever misbehave."

"Excuse my disbelief in that particular promise, Jamie. You are a child and I expect you to behave as such. I just ask you to use your common sense or more preferably Miss Granger's." Snape picked up the charmed glass sphere from the bedcovers. "I believe this to be her handiwork?"

"Yes, sir. I'm scared of the dark. The cupboard was always dark, but it was worse in the Second Bedroom when I was being punished. So Mione made me the nightlight. Draco said that he'd help her improve it so that it only lights up when I need it, and it'll be a little smaller, but he hasn't found the right spell yet."

"I'm glad to see that they can put aside their differences and work towards a common goal. I would not have expected it from either of them. Apparently you work some sort of greater magic on the inevitable house rivalries." Snape set the sphere down and smoothed Jamie's hair back. "I can see that you're tired again, and I apologize for causing it. Try and get some more sleep until lunch, and then we'll play some chess."

* * *

"Jamie! Are you okay? We wanted to come see you but Professor Snape said that you were sleeping this morning. You are alright, aren't you?" Hermione finally stopped talking and settled for a quick hug, stepping back before Jamie got distant or frightened. "Well?"

"I'm fine, Mione," he laughed. "You'll have to fill me in on what happened today in all of our classes, but other than that, I'm good. I got a day off, talked with my da-er-guardian, and played some wizards chess. And slept a lot. But I feel really good now, so why don't you and Ron tell me what you've been doing?"

"Trying to calm down Ginny," Ron muttered. "She loves cats, particularly Mrs. Norris. That really upset her. I kept trying to tell her that once she really got to know what a nuisance the cat was she wouldn't mind. Said it was a pity that the maniac didn't petrify Filch too and she wigged. Percy's talking to her now. It was just a joke. Honestly."

"It wasn't very funny," Hermione lectured. "I've been trying to borrow Hogwarts, A History from the library all day, but every copy is gone and there's a two week waiting list."

Jamie looked at her funny, and asked, "Mione, don't you own that book?"

She sniffed. "It wouldn't fit in my trunk with all of the Lockhart books." Before Ron could have too good a laugh at her expense, she went on. "It contains a chapter on the Chamber of Secrets, but I simply can't remember the details. I know it was Slytherin who built it, and something about a monster, but for the life of me I can't remember anything else."

Ron perked up. "Does Professor Snape know anything about it?"

Jamie shook his head. "We talked about it after lunch. Not much more than Hermione. He said that Salazar Slytherin was kind of a combination of McGonagall, Hagrid, and Snape. Strict, sneaky, and loved big and scary monsters. So if there really is a room like that I'm to stay clear of it."

"Believe me, everyone's staying clear of that hallway. Filch is standing guard and is an even worse temper than usual. He gave Katie Bell a detention for breathing loudly, and Hannah Abott got one for looking happy." Ron stroked his chin thoughtfully in a manner that Hermione knew led to mischief and/or rule breaking. "I for one wouldn't mind taking a look around."

Hermione surprised herself by agreeing (Malfoy's comment about her needing to leave had really gotten to her and she wanted to know exactly what he meant), but Jamie shook his head rapidly. "I promised not to."

"Come on, Harry," Ron pleaded.

"Jamie," the boy said tersely. "No. I'm going up to the common room to start my homework. See you later."

With a sigh, Hermione followed Ron in the opposite direction, not quite certain that this was right, but couldn't stand not knowing more.

* * *

Ron hadn't had a chance to speak with Jamie again until the next day in History of Magic. Professor Binns was droning on about the International Warlock Convention of 1289, so he leaned over and whispered, "Guess what we found yesterday. Scorch marks, and the water from last night was all cleaned up. Came from some Out-of-Order girls bathroom, where that annoying ghost we met at the deathday party lives. Moaning Myrtle, remember? Well, she gets upset and floods the place regularly according to Hermione."

"We found some interesting spiders too, didn't we, Ronald?" Hermione teased, having taken notes on the lecture the first time Binns had delivered it last week. Ron immediately flushed as Jamie asked what Hermione meant. "Ron's scared of spiders."

"Look, Fred turned my teddy bear into a spider when I was three. You wouldn't be able to stand them either if you had that memory," he huffed. "Besides that's not the point. We did some detective work getting caught by Percy of all people and lived to tell the tale. Snape's none the wiser."

"I'm not getting into trouble again. I've had more than enough trouble."

Hermione mouthed 'oh' in surprise and raised her hand quickly. It threw off Professor Binns completely. He had obviously never been interrupted before, live or dead. "Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Can you tell us about the Chamber of Secrets?" The entire class was suddenly at full attention. "After all, legends always have a basis in fact?"

"This legend-and I stress the word legend-is a sensational, even ludicrous tale." The ghost took a deep and completely unnecessary breath. "The school was founded by Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They worked together for many years before Slytherin began to protest allowing certain students to enter the school. He wanted to train only purebloods. It led to an argument with Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school angrily. Supposedly he had previously built a hidden chamber in the castle, called the Chamber of Secrets. Only his heir would be able to open it and loose the monster within to purge the school of all muggleborns. It is all nonsense. The most learned witches and wizards have been unable to find any evidence, so it most certainly doesn't exist. Now if we could please return to the study of facts and my lecture on the extremely important topic of the International Warlock Convention of 1289 as it most certainly will be on you OWLS if any of you actually reach your fifth year and the important testing!"

Within seconds the class was asleep again, and Ron and Hermione started talking again. "I bet its Malfoy. He hates muggleborns and Jamie told him about Filch being a squib. Bet it's something real nasty too. He's always claiming to be pure-blooded. He could easily be a descendent of Slytherin."

"Don't be ridiculous," Jamie insisted. "He was with us the entire time."

Ignoring him completely, Hermione continued. "We could find out for sure. Pretending to be three of the Slytherins, we could ask Malfoy anything we want. All we'd need is Polyjuice potion."

"That's dangerous!"

"Wait, what's Polyjuice Potion?" Ron asked with a totally baffled expression on his face.

"It's dangerous," Jamie stated folding his arms across his chest. "Not to mention illegal, and immoral. It changes the drinker into someone else. The ingredients are almost all poisonous if used incorrectly and the recipe is only in _Moste Potente Potions_ and it's in the restricted section of the library. No way."

"You could talk Professor Snape into signing a note, I'm sure," Hermione breathed.

"Won't do it, and you're not either. No professor is that thick."

"Except for Lockhart," Ron laughed. "He'll autograph anything that holds still." He paled upon realizing what he had said. Not only would Hermione love an autograph, Lockhart really was thick enough to do anything his best student asked of him. "No, Hermione. No."

* * *

**Next Chapter: Quidditch**

**Excerpt:****_ "Mr. Malfoy! Have you been resorted?" Madame Hooch waved him away from the Gryffindors, but didn't seem to have overheard his threat. "Ready to resume play?"_**


	8. Quidditch

**Author's Note: As promised, I present you with another fairly long chapter covering several incidents that you all know you have been looking forward to. On today's menu, we have idiot Lockhart, vengeful Snape, rule-breaking Hermione, and the return of Dobby. It should be interesting. I'm considering updating on Friday, but it really depends on how much packing I still have left to do. If not Friday, than Sunday will be a definite.**

**Disclaimer: I used one or two of Ron's lines from the book "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" because it wouldn't have been Ron to say something a little more . . . polite. Any recognizable characters, places, spells, and major events belong to JK Rowling. The adjusted plot and character development belongs to me.**

**Warnings: None. Open Lockhart mocking. Think that's it.

* * *

**

Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets

Original Dark Angel

* * *

Chapter 8: Quidditch

"Alright, class. Today we're doing an in-depth reading of the last chapter of _Wandering With Werewolves_. So turn to page 214 and I need someone to play the Waga-Waga Werewolf. Harry, how about you? Oh, so sorry! Jamie, I mean."

Reluctantly, Jamie left his seat next to Ron. Ron scowled at Lockhart. He hated agreeing with Snape but something about Lockhart was very off and he kept using Harry's fame for his own advantage. The slip with his name was no accident. The entire class could see it. Lockhart did it every time he saw the timid boy.

"Right then, Harry. You need to stand just there. So the beast gave a loud howl and I pounced on him." Ron saw Harry stiffen as Lockhart slammed into him. "Then I whipped him across the back in prep-" Lockhart got no further. At the word whipped, Jamie had started to struggle. Letting out a strangled yelp, he slammed his elbow up hard into the teacher's stomach in a dirty blow he must have learned from Snape or Malfoy. Lockhart turned him loose (more like shoved him away) and only Malfoy's quick action saved Jamie from crashing headlong into a desk.

Jamie wrenched away from the blonde boy and backed into the wall, cowering and covering his head. For a moment the entire class was silent and Jamie's harsh breathing was clearly heard, and it was getting worse. Malfoy pulled the boy's arms away from his face and shouted, "Weasley! His inhaler!"

Ron leapt into startled action and upturned Harry's bag. He snatched up the piece of white plastic that his friend depended on all too often. "Here."

"Sit up, Jamie," Malfoy ordered, stuffing the inhaler into his friend's hands, wrapping limp fingers around it, while supporting him with his free hand.

Now gasping for breath, Jamie obediently raised the device to his lips, only to throw it away in frustration. "Not . . . Working!"

"Someone fetch Snape!" Malfoy ordered. "Stay away from him, Lockhart! No need to make this any worse."

Ron dashed up into Lockhart's office and threw floo powder into the flames. "Professor Snape, Potions Classroom!" A moment later he stood in front of a shocked Snape. "Jamie! Panic attack in Defense. The inhaler didn't help."

"Class dismissed." With a flick of his wand the potions disappeared and he followed Ron into the fire.

Ron jumped out of the potionmaster's way as Snape swept down the stairs and shoved past Lockhart. He was given an excellent view of Snape acting like a concerned human being, and a . . . a dad.

Snape lifted Jamie into his lap and placed one hand on the boy's chest and one under his chin. "You have to relax, Jamie. I'm here and so are your friends so you're perfectly safe. Just relax. That's it. Take a deep breath. Good boy."

Jamie sagged against Snape in relief, whispering "Thanks, Dad."

"Rest now." Within moments, the vivid green eyes were closed in sleep. Snape turned the boy around and stood up, carrying Harry as if he were a small child. "Now, will someone tell me what scared my child to the point where his inhaler was useless?" Ron was extraordinarily glad not to be in Lockhart's shoes. Snape looked mad enough to kill.

"It was an accident, really, sir," Hermione piped up. "The professor was just demonstrating a scene from one of his books, and startled Har-er-Jamie."

"Hermione! Are you listening to yourself? Lockhart tackled Jamie and pretended to whip him! When Jamie fought back, Lockhart shoved him practically into a desk! Malfoy had to save him, for goodness sake!" Ron spat, dropping to the floor and stuffing things back into Harry's bag. He was surprised to find Malfoy helping him, but followed the other boy's gaze.

Snape had regained his eerie calm. "You thought that playacting a violent episode with a student only recently rescued from abusive relatives would be a suitable lesson plan, Gilderoy?"

"He's been calling him Harry all year, Professor," Malfoy spoke up, enjoying the tension.

"Rethink your lesson plans before Monday, and send Jamie's homework along with Mr. Weasley or Miss Granger."

"I have it already, Severus. Compose a poem on my defeat of the Waga-Waga Werewolf."

Ron thought that no one could have completely floored Severus Snape the way that sentence did. "A poem," Snape asked in disbelief, "about your book?"

Lockhart's smile dimmed. "Autographed copies of _Magical Me_ for the best one."

"I'm withdrawing my son from your class, Gilderoy. I'll tutor him, myself. Good day."

* * *

Hermione ran up to the staff room with Ron at her heels, but Flitwick and McGonagall wouldn't let them in. With a sigh, they headed up to the Gryffindor Common Room and were surprised to find Jamie sitting on the couch with his nose buried in _Counter-jinxes and Defensive Hexes for Young Duelers_. He looked up at them in surprise. "Hey, guys. Did you get out of Defense late?" 

"No, we had to make a quick stop at the library," Ron said meaningfully.

Jamie paled. "You didn't!"

Hermione shushed him and pulled him out of the portrait hole with them. She didn't stop until they were safely hidden inside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Since the ghost was crying, they ignored her and she returned the favor. Hermione opened the book. "This is the most complicated potion I've ever seen. Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, knotgrass, powdered horn of a bicorn, shredded skin of a boomslang, and a bit of whoever we have to turn into."

"I'm drinking nothing with Crabbe's toenails in it," Ron interrupted.

"You can't get a hold of powdered horn of a bicorn or shredded skin of a boomslang, Hermione," Jamie protested. "Bicorn horn is forty galleons apiece and no one is going to sell it to three kids! And shredded skin of a boomslang is poisonous. I don't think that Professor Snape lets even the Seventh Year NEWT Students use it."

"Then you'll have to borrow some from his stores, Jamie. I don't like to break the rules, but I think threatening muggle-borns is far worse than brewing Polyjuice Potion. Malfoy has to be stopped."

"Draco has nothing to do with this!"

"As long as we don't use toenails, I'll do it, Mione. Never thought that you would be convincing us to break the rules. How long does this all take."

"A month. We could be ready by Christmas."

"A month? Malfoy could kill half the school by then!" Hermione glared at him, and Ron hurried to say, "But it's the best plan we have got, so lets do it." She pretended not to hear him whisper to Jamie, "It'll be easier if you just knock Malfoy off of his broom tomorrow."

* * *

Draco hated playing quidditch in the rain. It wasn't like he had much to do right now anyway besides look for the snitch, and the blasted ball had been unsighted for twenty minutes. He slicked his hair back for what seemed like the millionth time and pitied Jamie with the long black hair whipping back and forth in the wind. He did a few loops to celebrate Slytherins Fifty-Zero lead even though he knew that it was no guarantee of victory. It gave him something to do. 

An odd configuration across the pitch caught his eye. Both Beaters were following Jamie closely and smacking a bludger around. Draco's eyes narrowed. Jamie had been dodging the same bludger all game. As he watched, one of the beaters slammed it towards him hard enough to dent the bat, but before he could dodge it reversed directions and zoomed back toward Jamie like a magnet. Draco zoomed dangerously close to the bludger to see if he could draw it away, but the bludger followed Jamie closely. "This is bad," he muttered, searching the stands to see if he could find Professor Snape.

After another score, the Gryffindor Captain finally called for a time-out. As soon as Draco's broom touched the ground, he was off of it and striding towards the Gryffindors. "Where's your dad?" he asked brusquely.

"Didn't get back from a meeting in time for the game," Jamie explained. "Do you know what's going on?"

"No idea. It wasn't a Slytherin. No one's stupid enough to target you and draw the wrath of Snape. Call for an inquiry. I've never seen a bludger act that way and I've been watching Quidditch since before I can remember."

Jamie looked miserable. "We can't. We forfeit the match. I can't do that to the team. They've worked really hard." With a sigh, he turned back to his teammates. "Leave the rogue bludger to me. I'll deal."

"This is your fault, Oliver. 'Get the Snitch or die trying.' What a stupid thing to say!" one of the twins griped.

Draco turned vehemently on the Gryffindor captain. "You told him what? How could you say something like that to Jamie Snape? If I didn't have a healthy fear of Flint and getting kicked off the team, I would kill you here and now for saying something like that to a kid who would take it seriously."

"Mr. Malfoy! Have you been resorted?" Madame Hooch waved him away from the Gryffindors, but didn't seem to have overheard his threat. "Ready to resume play?" Wood nodded.

Draco swore and grabbed Jamie's shoulder. "Don't get killed. Don't get hit." After a second, he shoved his broom into Jamie's hands. "You're going to need that more than me." He mounted Jamie's older model and kicked off still angry. He watched Jamie avoid the bludger through speed and some daring acrobatics and searching the ground for the golden snitch. After a particularly dangerous spin, he shouted across the pitch "Are you in training for the bloody ballet? Go faster!"

Jamie wasn't able to pull out of the spin and level out before the bludger came racing back and nearly knocked the boy off of the broom entirely. Draco heard a sickening crack and it wrenched a scream from the younger boy, but Jamie managed to gain control of the broom looked up at him, eyes wide, and raced towards him. Startled, Draco back flipped out of the way, seeing the flash of gold too late. Jamie caught it just as the bludger caught the tail of his broom and tilted the boy off. Draco snatched the kid around the waist before he could fall and hung on. He saw the Weasley twins coming to keep the bludger off their backs and descended to the ground as quickly as possible. Jamie had gained a little more weight and was too heavy for Draco to hang on like this one handed for long. Jamie passed out before the crowd reached them and Draco held him upright until Granger and Weasley reached them. Then he set the boy down, cushioning his head in Granger's lap.

Sadly, Lockhart was the first teacher to reach them as Jamie came to. "Stand back. I'll mend those bones good as new," he chortled, drawing his wand."

"No way!" Draco and Ron spoke as one. Jamie shook his head rapidly and cradled his arm protectively. "He'll go to the Hospital Wing."

"He needs healing now," Hermione protested. "The shoulder is shattered."

"Emendo!" Lockhart shouted before Draco could block him. He watched with horror as Jamie lifted his arm and it flopped bonelessly. "Er, well that can sometimes happen. The point is that the bones are no longer broken."

"Professor Snape is going to kill you," Draco whispered in shock. "Man, is he going to kill you."

Lockhart blustered for a second, before managing. "Toddle up to the hospital wing so Madame Pomfrey can tidy you up a bit. If Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley could escort you."

Draco elbowed past the teacher and gave his new friend a hand up and settled his friend's good hand over his shoulder. "Weasley on his other side," he ordered sending a nasty glare to the mudblood. "He needs healing now. The shoulder is shattered. Honestly, Granger," he sneered. "Madame Pomfrey can mend anything in seconds."

* * *

Poppy Pomfrey was anything but pleased. "That man is a menace. Jamie should have been brought straight to me to be healed." 

"I'm sorry, Madame Pomfrey," Jamie whispered looking down at his feet.

Poppy reached forward and mussed his hair lightly. "It's not your fault, Jamie. You're going to have to stay the night though and take a dose of Skel-grow, but I need your father's permission to give it to you."

"He's going to be so mad," Jamie whimpered. "Dad's gonna kill Lockhart for this."

"And it will be a well-deserved punishment," Poppy shook her head and dismissed Draco, Ron, and Hermione before turning back to the small boy. He was quavering slightly and she rested a hand on his shoulder. "What's the matter, Jamie?"

"I should have said or done something to stop Professor Lockhart. Is Dad going to be mad at me?"

"Of course not, Jamie," came a low drawl from the doorway. "But what did that idiot do now?" Wordlessly the boy stood up and showed the man his arm, shivering under the look of pure rage in the man's gaze. Snape muttered in several foreign languages, before controlling his wrath. "Please tell me, Poppy, that vanishing a student's bones is cause to fire that incompetent fool."

"I shall take it up with the headmaster myself, once Jamie is settled for the evening. I need you to sign a form that I can give him Skel-grow."

"Certainly. Then if you will excuse me, I need to go find my victim and secure a suitable poison."

"You're joking, right," Jamie asked desperately, turning pale.

Severus paused and sat down next to Jamie, placing an arm around the boy. "Yes, I won't poison him though he deserves it. But you need to understand that no adult in the world has the right to lay a hand or wand on you without my permission, which I will never give to someone as stupid as Lockhart. Seeing as he has ensured you yet another stay in the hospital wing and a dose of rather nasty potion, I do not see the harm in slipping a potion in his drink that will cause him to become uncomfortable for several hours. Let's get you into bed and I'll sign that release form. I'll be back after dinner. I noticed your friends were raiding the kitchen with the intent to bring you dinner and a victory party."

"Okay."

Poppy was surprised at how easily Severus managed to calm the boy, change him into hospital pajamas, dry his messy hair, and settle him into bed. "Now, I need to go to my lab before dinner, but I got this at Honeyduke's today. It was going to be a surprise for later, but I think that you will need it to get rid of the taste of Skel-grow."

"It's that bad?"

"Severus Snape, I won't have you warning people of my remedies!" Poppy pointedly ignored the man as she gave the glass to Jamie, but from the look on her patient's face, his father had either nodded vigorously or mouthed something foul as a comparison. So when Jamie shuddered at the taste, she blamed the man for predispositioning the boy. "You have fifteen minutes of party, young man. Then you are going to get some sleep."

"Yes, Madame Pomfrey."

* * *

Snape returned to the Hospital Wing as promised to find the boy sleeping. He sat in the chair next to the bed and began to sponge off the little boy's forehead where beads of sweat appeared. Skel-grow was not a pleasant experience and Snape would have preferred his adopted son to not be forced to suffer through the effects he knew so well. He briefly considered sharing the story with the boy when he returned to his bedroom tomorrow, but decided against it. It was thirteen years in the past and irrelevant to the world he now occupied. 

Jamie stirred and looked up at him, blinking once or twice trying to make out the face without his glasses, but apparently decided that it didn't matter.

"I'm sorry I woke you."

"S'okay. What time is it?"

"Seven-fifteen. How are you doing?"

"My arm hurts," came the mumbled reply. Apparently Jamie didn't function normally when half-asleep, and felt free to share his grievances. "M'tired kind of."

"You can go back to sleep. I'll stay until curfew."

"Teachers don't have curfew."

"No, but who do you think will catch the thickheaded students out of bed if the teachers don't take turns patrolling?" he teased lightly.

"What if they have a good reason for being out late?"

"I've never heard a good one in fourteen years of teaching."

"You should have caught me and Ron and Hermione last year. We were out all the time, but we had good excuses."

"Really? And what might that be?" Snape raised an eyebrow at the unwitting forthcoming.

Jamie curled back up. "Saving the Sorcerer's Stone. Stopping Quirrel and Voldemort. Helping Hagrid."

"I see. When you're more awake, I'll ask you for better details. But you need to go back to sleep. You have thirty-three bones to regrow in that arm."

"What did you do to Lockhart?"

"I'm afraid he had to leave the feast early and appears to have taken up a residence in the fourth floor lavatory."

"You slipped a laxative into his food?"

"Whoever said I had anything to do with it? Go to sleep, Jamie. We'll talk tomorrow."

He stroked the boy's hair back from his face and waited for the boy's breathing to deepen. Jamie was asleep and hopefully would stay that way long enough for his arm to heal.

* * *

Draco was caught by Professor Snape of all people as he snuck up to the Hospital Wing, but pleaded his case to see Jamie, and was released with a warning and an order to get up to the hospital wing quickly and without getting caught again. 

He sat next to the sleeping boy's bed and sighed in relief. The skeletal outline was in Jamie's arm. As soon as the bone hardened, Jamie would be back to normal. He looked up at a small noise and almost toppled off his chair. "Dobby! What are you doing here?"

The house-elf stared in surprise. "Dobby is sorry, Young Master Draco. Dobby, um, made a mistake. Dobby thought-er-it was you who was injured."

Draco almost dismissed him when Jamie opened his eyes and yelped. "Dobby!"

"How do you know my house-elf?"

"He came to Professor Snape's house before school started and told me to go back to the Dursley's and not to come to Hogwarts," Jamie explained shivering at the thought.

"Why would you say something like that to Jamie, Dobby?"

"Dobby wants to protect Young Master and the great Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter doesn't exist anymore," Draco said exasperatedly. "This is my friend, Jamie Snape."

"The Professor said that to Dobby, but Dobby did not believe it, no, sir. How can that not be our beloved hero who saved us all from such a horrible threat when Dobby can see the scar?"

"He used to be Harry Potter. Now he's Jamie Snape. It's complicated. Now I want the truth. What are you doing here?"

The elf began to wail. "He is not going home. Dobby thought that his bludger would send our hero home where he would be safe."

"Your bludger? You hurt Jamie?"

"Yes, Young Master. Dobby had to shut his head in the oven door and iron his fingers, but he does it gladly to make sure that the boy is safe."

"Being attacked by bludgers and incompetent teachers is safe?"

"The great wonderful Harry Potter, sir, saved us all from the horrible despicable He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He survived and broke the Dark Lord's power. But now terrible things are to happen at Hogwarts this year, perhaps already and Dobby can not leave the boy-who-lived here when history is about to repeat itself, when the Chamber of Secrets is open once more-" Dobby stopped midsentence and threw himself onto the floor, repeatedly bashing his head into the wooden boards. "Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!"

"The chamber of secrets was opened before," Draco leapt upon the clue, missing the fact that Jamie was shaking worse than ever. "When? Who? Tell me, Dobby!"

"Don't ask anymore of Dobby," the house-elf pleaded. "Please, young master, don't ask anymore of poor Dobby. He cannot say. Dobby just knows that the great wonderful Harry Potter, sir, must go straight home back to the muggles where he will be safe."

Before Draco could respond, Jamie jerked away from both of them and resisted Draco's attempt to touch him. He sat up straight, arms crossed over his chest. "I want my dad. I want him right now." Draco didn't know whether to dismiss Dobby to calm Jamie or keep him there for Professor Snape to question, but the house-elf took the decision out of his hands by disappearing as footsteps came towards the infirmary.

A moment later, Dumbledore appeared carrying the head of what appeared to be a statue, Professor Snape following with the feet. McGonagall came after them with her wand alight. "Get Madam Pomfrey," the older wizard ordered as they deposited the form on the nearest bed. McGonagall obeyed. Before Draco could stop him, Jamie was out of bed and ran to his father's side. Startled Professor Snape lifted him off the ground and allowed the child to wrap both arms around his neck. "Shh. Shh. What's the matter?"

"He came b . . . back," Jamie sobbed. "D . . . Do . . . Dobby."

Draco watched the Professor cross the room with the boy to comfort him and seeing that the younger boy was safe, returned his attention to the scene across the room. It was that extremely annoying first year that followed Jamie around with a camera all the time, Colin Creevey or something. The first year lay on the bed, petrified, hands up and still holding the blasted camera. Dumbledore had taken the camera and opened the back of it. The smell of burnt plastic filled the room and Dumbledore removed a melted mass of film.

"What does this mean, Albus?" McGonagall whispered in horror.

"It means that the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again."

"But, Albus . . . surely . . . who?"

"The question is not who. The question is how."

Draco returned his gaze to Jamie as the professors looked up at him. Jamie was a little calmer and more rational now, but couldn't really answer Professor Snape's questions, as the boy didn't really comprehend what was going on around him, just the threat of being returned to the muggles who hurt him.

"It was my house-elf, sir. Dobby belongs to my family, but I don't understand much more than Jamie does. He said something about the chamber had been opened before."

"We know. It happened fifty years ago. What else?"

"He was behind the bludger. He wanted Jamie to be hurt just enough to be sent back to the muggles so he wouldn't be in any danger."

"Stupid house-elf."

Draco resisted the sudden and surprising urge to defend the probably insane house-elf who had raised him more than either of his parents for the better part of thirteen years, and continued. "Terrible things are going to happen here, he told us. It really upset him to tell us that much. He kept evading my questions, and he couldn't normally do that unless, well, unless he was keeping my father's secrets."

"I am no longer in contact with Lucius Malfoy or the other death eaters since the adoption of Jamie became public. You know that, Draco."

"Yes, sir. I could try to find out more for you if you would like."

"No. I forbid you to ask him about anything related to the subject. Leave that to the adults, because I do not want either of you to incur Lucius's wrath for something unimportant. Stay away from anything that has to do with the Chamber of Secrets and don't walk around alone anymore. Stay together at all times. If you see or hear anything else by accident report it to one of the teachers immediately."

"Any teacher?"

"Preferably a competent one. Lockhart and Trelawny do not apply."

"Alright, sir."

"Madame Pomfrey, is it possible for Jamie to be discharged from the Infirmary now? After we return Draco to the Slytherin commons, I promise that I will take him straight to our chambers and keep an eye on him until the Skel-grow is completely finished. I think that he needs to be somewhere that he feels completely safe right now, and after the house-elf's appearance here, I do not think that the Hospital Wing will apply."

"Of course, Severus. If you need anything, feel free to firecall or just come through the floo. Don't hesitate. I doubt I'll be getting back to sleep for a few more hours."

"Thank you. Draco, if you will?"

"Yes, sir. Good night, Professors."

"Good night, Mr. Malfoy."

* * *

**Next Chapter: My Dad**

**Excerpt: _"It was instinctual not to trip over her and since I had to stop anyway . . ."Draco sputtered, before smirking. "Anyway, it really made the little Weasley's day that you, the great ex-Harry Potter, stopped and looked at her for a whole minute._**


	9. My Dad

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

**Chapter 9: My Dad**

Ron dashed up the stairs to the hospital wing and almost tripped as he entered. Madame Pomfrey caught his arm and steadied him. "A little slower in the future, Mr. Weasley. What is the matter?"

"Nothing . . . just . . . wanted to see . . . Jamie . . . down to breakfast," he panted.

"His father discharged him already and I'm assuming that they are breakfasting in their chambers now if they haven't already. Now get out of my infirmary before you fall over again, and don't forget to **walk**," she called after him as he raced away. He sprinted down to the corridor where the Girls Bathroom was located, checked for both Filch and Percy and slipped inside.

"He was already out, Mione. He's with Snape."

"Oh, well, he'll probably be here soon. You can add the lacewings now."

"Do we seriously have to drink this?"

"Oh, come on, Ron, we have to drink potions for class that contain dead spiders, toad bile and snake fangs or worse. It's lacewings, you won't even be able to see them after a month, much less taste them. I'd like to know how we're going to get those special ingredients from Snape's cupboard if Jamie won't help."

"He will. He's our friend, Mione. We just have to explain why it's so important when he gets here. He'll understand. We can't let Malfoy continue cursing people like Colin Creevey."

"I hope so. Where is he?"

* * *

Draco turned towards Jamie's footsteps and thought hard about exactly where he was in relation to the sofa and the kitchen counter. He would have to walk around the counter to get to Jamie who would have ample time to escape. He would have to coax the boy back into the main part of the rooms. He started off towards his target, just a little to the left. He heard Jamie giggle and the critical step off of the tile and onto the carpet. He spun and seized a handful of robe. "Got you!" The lights came on and he looked up at his Professor. "Or not."

Jamie leapt off the counter, landing lightly next to Draco. "You fell for it, hook, line, and sinker."

"Huh?"

"Sorry, muggle saying. How was that, sir?"

"Decent first try at seeking. Excellent evasive skills, Jamie, but in the future, please refrain from standing on the counter."

"Sure. My turn to seek. Can I try the net spell if I find him?"

"If you can manage it without breaking anything."

The lights went out and Draco moved out into the living space, dropped to his knees and crawled under the end table to slip behind the sofa. He waited until he heard Jamie at the other end and slipped back out the way he came. He hid in between the two large bookshelves, and waited patiently. But he must have miscounted the steps, because a moment later, he felt a wand tap him, and a muttered. "Capture." A neat net of silver light trapped him against the wall as the lights came back on. Jamie promptly freed him, and stepped back so he could get out. "That was a cool trick with the sofa, Draco. I'll have to remember that one."

"Why don't you two try the basic curse detection spells I showed you a few times on the potions bottles on the counter? There are three curses on each of the five tall bottles, and two on the three short ones. If you can undo all of them before I finish grading the fifth years' essays, I won't make you do an essay on the topic."

"Sounds fair to me," Jamie smirked briefly before he slipped onto the stool and studied the challenge. Draco sat next to him and cast the first spell on the tall bottle in front of him. He smiled victoriously as the bottle flashed purple and undid the sleeping curse before trying the next spell. This one didn't activate and he groaned. This would take awhile to test all eight bottles with all ten of the spells.

* * *

Draco raced Jamie down the corridor to the Great Hall, and slammed into Ron Weasley as a result. "Sorry, Weasley. Couldn't stop."

Jamie had caught up to them, and gave them both a hand up. "Hey, Ron. What's for lunch today?"

"Where have you been? Hermione and I have been looking for you for hours."

"Professor Snape let me do my Defense Against the Dark Arts practical lesson today so that I could have a free period on Tuesday. You wouldn't believe how cool the regular Second Year curriculum is when he teaches it. And he's letting Draco do the practical with me as long as he reads the theory on his own time, so we just finished part of the curse detection unit and he taught us how to use our other senses to find an opponent when we can't see. It was awesome."

Draco grinned at Jamie's long monologue. The kid was hyper on sugar so sharing the box of Sugar Quills probably wasn't the best idea. It would take a while to wear him out and he wasn't about to return Jamie to Professor Snape when the kid was a step away from bouncing off the walls. "Come on, kid. I'm starving for real food and I smell fish and chips."

"I'm coming. See ya later, Ron."

"Hermione and I were worried about you, Harry."

Jamie stiffened. "I'm fine. All my bones grew back, and Professor Snape got me out of the Hospital Wing early so I'm going to go eat and then play quidditch or something outside. If you want to meet us there, fine."

Draco watched with surprise as he turned away from Ron and headed into the great hall. "Bring broomsticks if you come out, Weasley, and for Merlin's sake remember to call him Jamie if you want him to talk to you at all."

* * *

Hermione was very concerned about Jamie's odd behavior and agreed with Ron that they should chaperone the pair outside, but that didn't mean she was going to get onto a broom. Instead she picked up her favorite book and followed a seething Ron outside. On the quidditch pitch, both brooms lay forgotten, as the two cloaked figures threw snowballs at each other, dodging and missing frequently. She ducked one errant missile and started up to the bleachers. She caught sight of Jamie packing a snowball and firing it. His face was lit up by a smile that went from ear to ear and he pitched the ball at Ron. Ron stared down at his front in mock horror and pretended to be fatally wounded, taking a long time to 'die' as he fell and squirmed. He was so busy exaggerating his death that he missed Jamie's smirk. Jamie tackled the taller boy and stuffed snow in his face, before leaping to his feet and running away as fast as possible. It wasn't fast enough and Ron took out his legs before he got too far. Hermione cringed, expecting Jamie to go into a panic attack, but he just yelped and dodged the handful of snow aimed at his face. Both boys looked up startled as snowballs started raining on them from above. Draco Malfoy sat on his broomstick and launched his missiles from not even ten feet in the air and just out of their reach. Both Gryffindors ran for their brooms and started an even more furious snow battle. Hermione went back to reading _Year with the Yeti_ for class on Tuesday. She had been horrified to find that Snape had been serious about withdrawing Jamie from Professor Lockhart's class on Friday. How could a potionsmaster hope to educate Jamie in Defense better than a world-renowned honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League? She resolved to keep Jamie up to date with the class plans that the real teacher laid out.

* * *

Draco collapsed on the end of Jamie's bed and tried to catch his breath. "That was a close one."

"You're telling me. I thought Lockhart would see his reflection in the armor while he was telling off the Weasley Twins since he loves his reflection so much and give us another detention."

"Yeah, well he managed to withhold his vain impulses for five minutes in the corridor, so I'd be willing to bet a galleon that he's discovered what happened to his hair by now. I'm just relieved that the Weasley Twins didn't give it away as he lectured them about decorum and respect of oneself."

"They're professional pranksters. They wouldn't give us away. But if you hadn't stopped to help Ginny up than we wouldn't have still been in the hallway."

"It was instinctual not to trip over her and since I had to stop anyway . . ." Draco sputtered, before smirking. "Anyway, it really made the little Weasley's day that YOU the great ex-Harry Potter stopped and looked at her for a whole minute."

Jamie groaned and pulled a pillow over his face. He sat on the floor leaning against the bed and could reach the pillows from there unlike Draco. "Why do all the little first years do that?"

"Little? Weasley and Creevey are your height, mate, and the rest of the first years are even taller."

Jamie grimaced. "Don't care. They're still a year younger than me. Ugh, I hate being short."

"Gee, couldn't tell," Draco teased before changing the subject. "Has your head of house come around with the sign-up sheet to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas yet?"

"No, but I don't know what I'm doing yet. Does Professor Snape usually stay for Christmas? I know he was here last year, but I think that was mainly to keep an eye on Quirrell."

"Don't know. You can ask him before dinner."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm staying. Mother has a socialite ball that she can't miss, and Father's away on a business trip. Besides Hogwarts is supposedly famous for their Christmas feasts and I want to sample one." Draco hurried to get the focus back on Hogwarts and off of his less than desirable home-life.

"Last year was great, but if the Professor wants to go home, I'd like to go too. It'll be the first time that I can go home for Christmas ever, and I really want to."

"Sounds like a good idea to me. If I happen to off Finnegan and Thomas while you're gone, you will testify that they did drive me to insanity, right?"

"It's a plan."

* * *

Snape found Jamie and Draco playing wizards chess in the living room when he returned to his quarters. "Should I award ten points to Gryffindor or Five points each to Slytherin and Gryffindor for Lockhart's pink hair?"

"Does he know that we did it?"

"The staff managed to keep from laughing until he walked out, so I imagine he has yet to discover the change let alone the perpetrators."

"Wow, he must have gone straight to the staff room from the corridor. I'm surprised he survived that long without a mirror," Draco commented with a raised eyebrow. "Check."

"Pawn to F7 and Checkmate."

"How the heck did you do that?" Draco griped.

"Do I dare ask what you used to produce that result?"

"Red ink and sticking potion mixed together and spelled to his hair," Jamie confided. "By the time he undoes the sticking potion, the red ink will have sunk in and dyed it, so he'll have to dye it back to normal."

"Brilliant, boys. Five points each for ingenuity." Snape pulled the Gryffindor sign-up list from his pocket. "Where do you want to spend Christmas, Jamie?"

The boy turned to face him, flustered. "It's up to you, sir."

Over his head, Draco mouthed "home."

"I thought to relax away from the dunderheaded students at home, and if you don't wish to stay with your friends, then I think we could manage a trip to Diagon Alley before Christmas."

"That sounds like an excellent idea, sir. Thank you."

Snape waited until the boys headed into Jamie's bedroom to shake his head. If he could only break Jamie of the habit of thanking him unnecessarily and convince the boy to speak up for himself, he would be pleased.

* * *

Hermione and Ron conducted an intervention on Thursday when Jamie returned from classes because not only was his friendship with Draco reaching worrisome levels, they desperately needed help getting the ingredients from Snape's office the next day. Jamie came in practically bouncing off the wall describing his awesome lesson with Professor Snape which Ron half envied since Lockhart was such a useless git. Ron grabbed his friend's arms and forced him down into the chair, not missing the startled expression of fear that crossed his friend's face and at that moment Ron's heart sunk. This wasn't going to work and it was going to hurt their friendship in the process. But it was too late.

"We need to talk to you about getting those ingredients from Snape, Jamie. We need to catch Malfoy before he petrifies someone else," Hermione said briskly.

"It isn't Draco," Jamie insisted nervously. "He was with us during the first attack and he was with me when Colin was petrified. And I won't help you get those ingredients because it's a dangerous potion and you're going to use it on my friend." He started to get up, but Hermione grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back down into the seat. "Stay here."

"NO!" Jamie leapt from the seat. "I'm not some first year that you two can order around!"

"We weren't trying to, Jamie," Hermione said in confusion. "But we're not finished because you don't seem to understand how dangerous Malfoy is."

"We are definitely finished," Jamie spat. "Draco is my FRIEND. He looks out for me and helps me when I need it, like you two should be doing!"

Utter silence met his outburst, and Jamie tore off his Gryffindor scarf and threw it at Ron. "House rivalries suck." He turned on his heel and strode out of the common room.

"Where are you going?"

"To my dad's!"

After he disappeared, Hermione turned to Ron and whispered, "When did Harry start calling Professor Snape that?"

Ron didn't know, but he had an inkling that there were some new boundaries on their friendship and that crossing them would not be permitted under Snape's nose.

* * *

Draco was watching Jamie pace back and forth, and trying to get the whole story out of him. Unfortunately it seemed to involve a Golden Trio Secret and even though Jamie was mad at the two Gryffindors, he was too loyal to spill it.

"Jamie, if you can't tell me what the situation is, how about if you tell me what about the situation bothered you?"

Jamie stopped pacing and looked at him, thinking hard. "I could do that. Brilliant, Dray." He plopped down onto the bed. "They were ordering me around. They were telling me to do things that I didn't want to do, and they were 'explaining' about how certain things are the way they see them and no one else's view matters and that's what always bugs me about Dumbledore too. How can they know what's best for me when they won't even listen to me? They completely ignored what I said and kept going on and on and then Hermione tried to make me stay in the chair and listen to them and I wigged. I jumped up and yelled at them. Then I told them that they weren't being good friends and that houses weren't supposed to divide all the houses up into four mini schools and left. Then, get this, they wanted to know where I was going, because I'm obviously incapable of taking care of myself. But I knew that if I didn't tell them, then they would follow me or go to Professor McGonagall, so I yelled over my shoulder that I was going to-" Jamie stopped and blushed. "I said that I was going to my dad's."

"He is your dad now. Legally at least."

"Yeah, but I've never called him that before or at least not meant it. It was always for show so that horrible Umbridge woman would leave us alone, or my house would shut up about my betrayal and stuff like that. But I seriously called him 'Dad' and I think I meant it, which is really weird and even if I did mean it, I don't think he really wants to be my dad."

"He takes really good care of you. All the time, and not just feeding you, teaching you, mandatory kind of caring. He sits with you in the Hospital Wing and talks to you when you need it, and he threatened Filch within an inch of his life for you. That was something to hear, let me tell you. My ears were blistering and I wasn't even the one he was threatening. And as for never calling him that before, Jamie? You did it twice after the quidditch game."

"What are you talking about?"

"When you were talking to Madame Pomfrey, you asked if 'Dad' would be mad at you. Professor Snape was in the doorway and he answered you even though you called him dad, so he must be able to stand being called that. And then when Dobby tried to convince you to go back to those stupid muggles, you told me that you wanted your dad. I think that you meant it both times and you didn't even notice that you had said it." Jamie looked deep in thought as Draco finished. Putting a hand on his friend's shoulder, Draco smirked. "I think you have yourself a real live parent there, Jamie-boy."

"I've got to think about this for awhile," Jamie shook his head. "I don't know if I'm ready for this yet. If I've used it before, then I'll probably use it again, but I don't want to think and agonize over it beforehand. It's confusing." He shrugged. "But hey, that's my life. Can we talk about this later when I've thought it over some more, Dray?"

"Sure, why don't you finish telling me about the Gryffindors instead?"

"Oh, there's not much more to that. I walked out on them. I think that they deserved it. I'm not in need of an intervention. I know exactly what I'm doing. I'm doing the smart thing instead of the reckless brave one."

"Three cheers for Jamie Snape. We'll make a Slytherin out of you yet."

Jamie smirked, "Did you know that the Sorting Hat wanted to put me into Slytherin?"

Draco's mouth dropped, "You turned it down? Why?"

Jamie shrugged. "Hagrid told me that every dark wizard came from Slytherin and then I met Ron and Hermione on the train and they said that Gryffindor was the best house and that Slytherins were all horrible. Plus I had met you and you were pretty arrogant and set on Slytherin."

"You talked the Sorting Hat out of the house it wanted to place you in? That's impossible!"

"Well it never said that it was going to put me into Slytherin. I was just doing my 'Not Slytherin' mantra in my head and it asked me if I was sure, because Slytherin could help me become great. But he said that I was difficult to sort, so I think that it was a close call between Slytherin and Gryffindor and my choice just tipped the scale."

"Weird. You do have a lot of Slytherin qualities and come to think of it, you have a lot of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw attributes too. I wonder why the hat decided Gryffindor."

"Last year, Professor Snape would have called it my savior-complex," Jamie grinned. "This year, he'd probably say it's surviving the muggles for eleven years."

"And what are you two talking about that would require me to say either?" a voice inquired from the doorway. Both boys looked up to see Professor Snape standing in the doorway.

Jamie laughed. "Why I'm a Gryffindor, sir."

"Really? I think it is more likely to be your ability to get away with absolutely anything."

"I thought that 'Never get caught' was the Slytherin motto, sir."

"Oh, you get caught alright, you just talk your way out of it."

"Touché," Jamie grimaced.

"And if you think that we are eating off of the bare table tonight, Jamie, you are sorely mistaken."

"Whoops." Jamie leapt to his feet. "Sorry, I forgot to set the table. I'll go do it now."

"Thank you." When the boy was out of the room, Snape turned to Draco. "How is he doing?"

"Excellent, sir. He made a decision for himself, going against what his Gryffindor friends wanted and he thought about what he wanted and was ready for rather than just jumping into something."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Are you able to share details?"

"Not right now, sir. I think he'll come to you about it soon. But he agrees with us about Dumbledore's habit of all-knowingness."

"That is not a word, Draco, but I do understand what you mean. You're welcome to stay for dinner if you would like."

"Thank you, sir. I'll do that."

A knock on the apartment's main door caught their attention, and Jamie ran to answer it, yelling, "I've got it!" The door opened to reveal a redhead. "Ron," Jamie said coldly. Draco felt Snape look from Jamie to Ron and then him in surprise, but before either could intervene something unexpected happened.

"I'm really sorry about earlier, Jamie. You're right about Hermione's plan and you're right about the fact that Malfoy couldn't have been behind the attack on Mrs. Norris or Colin because he always was with you at the time. Hermione still doesn't believe that, but I do, and I'm sorry that we tried to tell you what to do. You're right. You are old enough to decide what you want to do, who you want to do it with, and where you want to go. And Hermione and I have been really lousy friends this year. Will you forgive me?"

"Yes," Jamie nodded. "On the condition that you stop calling Draco by his last name."

"Done, but I don't have to like him."

"Fair enough. Professor Snape, can Ron eat with us?"

"May Ron eat-"

"Right. May Ron eat dinner with us?"

"I suppose."


	10. The Parseltongue Goes Home For Christmas

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: You've got the idea by now. I don't own anything recognizable.**

Ron forced his way through the crowd gathered around the bulletin board and grinned wildly when he saw the flier. He returned to where Jamie was studying his Potions text, and covered the pages to get the raven-haired boy's attention. "Guess what? They're starting a dueling club. The first meeting is tonight."

"I know. Professor Lockhart is teaching it. Professor Snape is overseeing to make sure that Lockhart doesn't do something stupid."

Ron's face brightened. "Maybe they'll finish each other off and I won't have to do either of my essays. Er, sorry, Jamie. Well if Professor Snape is helping out then maybe it won't be a total waste of time to go. If nothing else, I'm sure Snape will hex Lockhart before the night is over and that would be the most fun we've had all week."

"Speak for yourself. I got to practice shields in defense yesterday and produced a perfect Amethyst Shell Block that sent Draco back into the pillows on my first try."

"It's incredibly unfair that you get cool Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons and we're stuck with the color-coded idiot in class," Ron griped. "But I still want to go tonight."

Jamie shrugged, "then we'll go."

-----

It had taken Lockhart close to fifteen minutes to actually start dueling because of his grand speech. Draco and the Slytherin boys all cheered when Snape knocked Lockhart off of the platform with a Second Year Spell that most of them already knew. Jamie watched in boredom as Lockhart tried to save face, but had snickered briefly at his shocked look, as he was so easily disarmed. Lockhart finally stopped blathering on and started pairing off the students.

Jamie faced Ron with a smirk. "Dad taught me this spell a week ago." Inwardly Draco grinned at Jamie's slip of tongue, but didn't draw the younger boy's attention to it.

A dark shadow fell over them as Snape appeared at their sides and shook his head. "No, Jamie. I don't want you facing a broken wand. Partner with Draco for now. Mr. Weasley, if you would like to subject Mr. Finnegan or Mr. Thomas to that dysfunctional wand, I don't suppose I actually saw you carrying it tonight." Draco thought that the mischievous grin that now adorned Weasley's face was almost worthy of a Slytherin.

With a shrug, Jamie obeyed, bowing slightly to his opponent and raising his wand the way Professor Snape had shown him during their practical lesson.

"On three then. One . . . two . . . three." Then chaos raged.

On two, Draco threw a levitating spell at him. Startled to find himself hovering three feet off the ground, Jamie retaliated with a light tickling charm. Between gasps of laughter, Draco released the first spell and managed "Tartanellgra!" Then he grinned at Jamie's unusual quickstep.

Over the din, he heard Professor Lockhart screaming ineffectively, but Professor Snape was quick to take charge and shouted, "Finite Incantatem!"

Under the green mist of half-incanted spells, all movement stopped. Draco could breathe normally without laughing, and Jamie stopped dancing. Jamie offered his hand to Draco and pulled him up. Draco smirked and pushed off the ground with his spare hand, since Jamie couldn't lift his weight alone. "That was interesting."

"You started before three," Jamie scowled at him. "That's not fair."

"People don't always play fair, Jamie-boy. You should have been ready for it."

"It still wasn't fair," Jamie complained, folding his arms across his chest and pouting.

"Come off it, Jamie. You seriously look like you're eight or nine years old when you do that." Secretly, Draco approved of Jamie actually whining and taking offense at something. Jamie never had the chance to be a spoiled eight-year-old and if Snape was willing to put up with the boy reliving his childhood, Draco didn't want to be the one to put a stop to it.

"Do not." Jamie's bottom lip stuck out even farther.

"Do too."

Lockhart finally got everyone's attention and after Snape silenced the crowd for him, spoke up. "I guess that I had better teach you all how to block unfriendly spells first. "Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, then."

"Longbottom causes havoc with the simplest of spells, Gilderoy. Unless you intend to send Finch-Fletchley to the Hospital Wing before the night is over, you should choose another pair. I would suggest my Defense Students as they covered basic shields yesterday and seemed to pick it up quickly."

"Oh, all right then. Harry, Draco, get up here then. Sorry, I mean Jamie and Draco."

Draco distinctly heard Jamie mutter, "Disgusting old fart," as the climbed the steps to the platform.

Lockhart smiled at them like he was Santa Clause or something. "Go ahead and take your positions. Draco, settle on a spell that you'll cast on Jamie. Jamie, I want you to do this to block his attack." He spun his wand in some sort of complicated wand movement and promptly dropped it. " Oops, my wand is a little overexcited. Just do what I did, m'boy, and you'll be fine."

"Gee, dropping my wand will save me?" The sarcasm in the dark-haired boy's voice was heavily reminiscent of a certain potionsmaster. "I think I'll use the Amethyst Shell Block that my dad showed me instead."

Flustered, Lockhart stepped back and jerked his head to signal that they were ready to begin. Draco smirked at his friend. "Scared?"

"You wish."

Draco shouted "Serpensortia," and Jamie threw up his shield perfectly. The snake seemed mildly annoyed about bouncing off the shield, but when Lockhart blasted it up ten feet in the air and dropped it again, the snake turned vicious. With two steps Draco snatched Jamie's collar and pulled him back from the weaving snake that was preparing to strike. Foiled, the snake turned and headed directly for the fat Hufflepuff boy, Finch-Fletchley.

Before Draco could stop him, Jamie jerked away and shouted after the snake, "Stop!" But the next thing out of his mouth was an eerie hissing and raspy sounds that paused the snake in its path. Jamie held out his hand to it, and the snake coiled itself around the little boy's wrist without a second thought.

"What do you think you're playing at, Snape?" the Finch-Fletchley boy spat angrily.

Draco jumped off the platform and shoved the other boy away. "He just saved your life, you idiot! Who cares how he did it? At least you're still breathing!"

"He's a dark wizard! Only dark wizards are parselmouths, Malfoy!"

"Don't be a bigger idiot than usual, Finch-Fletchley!" Draco shouted. "Anybody could see that he stopped the snake." He caught sight of Jamie still standing on the stage looking completely lost with the snake calmly wrapped in a few loose coils around his shoulders. The hurt on his face tore at Draco, and he gestured wildly at Weasley and Granger to get him out of there while he and Snape restored order. Jamie refused to just leave until Professor Snape dismissed the dunderheads and guided him back to the staff room. Jamie sat on the sofa numbly as his Gryffindor friends sat beside him, both placing a firm arm around his shoulders. Draco moved behind them and tapped the kid's wrist. "I'll get rid of it now."

Jamie shook his head. "It's just a snake. It's not his fault that everyone freaked out. Apparently it's mine."

Professor Snape looked like he was fighting the urge to reassure Jamie that it wasn't. "Jamie, did you know that you're a parselmouth?"

"I don't even know what that is," Jamie whispered.

"You can talk to snakes," Ron explained.

"Yeah, a snake at the zoo told me that it wanted to see Brazil, but what's the big deal? There must be loads of people here who can do it."

"No, Jamie, it isn't a common gift. The ability to speak parseltongue is very rare. The reason the students reacted badly is because the last wizard to speak the language was Voldemort."

"What?"

"I expect that the scar you received from him came with a piece of his powers, including parseltongue, Jamie. This is a particularly bad time for this particular ability to reveal itself, because the children know that Slytherin himself was a parseltongue."

"They think that I'm the heir of Slytherin."

"It was a thousand years ago," Hermione whispered. "For all we know you could be."

Snape shook his head. "No, that is impossible. James Potter was a descendent of Rowena Ravenclaw and her husband. Her sister, Helga, married Salazar Slytherin, but there is absolutely no blood relation. It might take a while to trace through all the family trees, but I could definitely find proof of it."

"You may have to do that before this is all over, Professor," Draco said grimly. Those Hufflepuffs won't give up this idea, and the Gryffindors have been looking for a reason to target Jamie since they found out about the adoption."

"Gryffindors are loyal," Hermione protested.

"Not to Jamie," Draco said firmly and was surprised when Ron nodded in back up. "Finnegan and Thomas have been causing all sorts of trouble lately. The Weasleys, the quidditch team, Longbottom, and you are the only ones loyal to Jamie anymore."

"This is bad," Ron muttered. "Look, Christmas break is in a week and two days. Maybe the break will cause everything to blow over. We just have to keep a close eye on Jamie until then, and maybe by the time we come back, Dumbledore will have caught the Heir and sent him to Azkaban."

"Here's to wishful thinking," Draco muttered.

-----

The morning after the parseltongue incident, Jamie was eating breakfast with Snape, mildly grumpy because of the early hour, but in a decent state of mind considering the events of the previous night. That changed the instant Jamie opened the letter a barn owl dropped off. The boy paled and turned his frightened green gaze to Snape. When the boy didn't answer his inquiry, the man plucked the piece of parchment from his adopted son's grip.

_"Mr. Harry James Potter-Snape, an inquiry has been made on your behalf as to your current living situation with your newly acquired father based on the concerns of the Ministry of Magic and your muggle relatives. A social worker or myself will spend a few hours a day with you over break to insure your welfare. If the concerns are indeed founded, then your muggle relatives will resume guardianship after a formal hearing. Sincerely, Miss Dolores Jane Umbridge. Enclosed is a letter from your aunt, Petunia Dursley, nee Evans."_

Snape looked up too late. Jamie was already reading the angry script and visibly shrinking into his chair. "You do not need to read that woman's pack of lies, Jamie. Give it to me." After a moment, Jamie obeyed and placed the half-read letter into his open hand. Snape immediately set both letters ablaze. "Horrible people, the lot of them."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"This is certainly not your fault, Jamie. Put this matter out of your head and let the adults handle it."

"But-"

Snape dropped to his knees so he could look Jamie in the eye. "Jamie, please trust me to take care of this. You're only twelve. Let the adults solve this for you."

Jamie nodded, tears spilling down his face. "Don't let them hurt me again."

"I won't."

-----

Draco was not pleased with the way Hogwarts was reacting to the parseltongue incident. It particularly irritated him that the other three houses had changed their suspect from Draco to Jamie. It didn't help when that idiotic Hufflepuff turned up petrified, along with the stupid ghost that got them all into this mess in the first place. It didn't matter to anyone, even the teachers that Jamie and Draco had been outside playing quidditch, until Hagrid came and spoke up for them. After the giant informed them that he had seen the boys playing quidditch and walked them back up to the castle, the teachers sent Jamie up to the Headmaster's office, and left him to stand with Hagrid staring at the dead rooster, that Hagrid was unconsciously wringing the neck of.

"Um, Hagrid? I think the bird is already dead."

The giant looked down. "Oh, right. Sorry. It's the second one killed this term. Either a fox or a blood-sucking bugbear did it and I need Dumbledore's permission to set up a charm around the coop. I was expelled ya' know. Long time ago. Dumbledore let me stay on as the gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."

"Yeah, er, thanks for speaking up for me and Jamie. Not many people are willing to do that anymore."

"No trouble at all. Well, I guess I'll come see the headmaster later. He'll probably be awhile with Jamie. Keep a close eye on him for me, Dray."

Draco stared after him in confusion. What was it with people calling him that? As a nickname from Jamie, it wasn't too bad, Pansy came up with even worse every day, but since when did the gamekeeper feel close enough to call him that? His entire world was turning upside down just as much as Jamie's was recently and Draco couldn't decide whether he liked it or not.

-----

Snape found Jamie in the third compartment fast asleep, Miss Granger waiting across from him. "I didn't want to wake him," she murmured. "He hasn't been sleeping well according to Ron. The letter from the Dursleys really upset him."

"Thank you, Miss Granger. I'll take him from here. You had better go find your parents."

"Yes, sir."

As soon as the girl disappeared, Snape scooped Jamie into his arms and carried the child off the train and to the taxi. When they arrived, Snape carried him inside and placed him on the couch in the parlor, while he checked the wards. Once satisfied that they were intact, he took his adopted child up to the boy's bedroom and tucked him into the bed. Smoothing the messy jet-black hair back from the pale face, he muttered, "Sleep well, Jamie."

-----

"I'm going to go visit Gladius today. Would you like to come with me?" Severus was surprised as Jamie dropped the book and ran after his cloak. "I guess I'll take that as a yes." When the boy returned, he offered him the floo powder, and Jamie didn't hesitate to throw it in the fire and disappear in the rushing green flame, very different from the nervous boy who had hung on his every word about the new experience of flying through fireplaces. "Wait inside the Leaky Cauldron for me," he warned a moment too late. With a shake of his head he followed to find that the boy had done exactly that.

With a smirk, he led the way to Gladius' and began pursuing the shelves for the potions ingredients that he needed to restock on. He noticed Jamie wave to Gladdius across the store and run to the older man's side. The boy whispered something in the man's ear that Snape could not make out, and the professor had to pretend not to see the absolutely jovial smile gracing his fellow potionsmaster's face. Whatever they were up to was obviously not of the good, but Snape had no desire to squash the first spark of independence that Jamie had shown. Besides, he couldn't remember the last child Gladdius took a liking to. Gladdius didn't dabble in the illegal, so he supposed that it wouldn't harm to let them get away with a bit of mischief. At least it wouldn't involve a broom.

He treated the boy to ice cream cones after the potions shop and managed not to interrogate him about the suspicious behavior he had witnessed earlier. They had just sat down in the heated parlor when the toad-like woman came in and zeroed in on their table. Snape raised an eyebrow. "Good morning, Miss Umbridge."

"We had an appointment!"

"Your letter did not list a time, ma'am. And I thought that the purpose of these visits would be to supervise our normal activities. We had a few errands to run, and Jamie needed to do some last minute Christmas shopping. You're welcome to join us."

She sat down with a huff. "And what are your plans for today, Mr. Snape?"

"I just restocked the potions stores for Hogwarts. I want to take Jamie to Madame Malkins to replace one of his school robes. There was an interesting charms lesson, which permanently altered the color to bright orange, I understand. Then we need to stop at Flourish and Blotts for a new Defense book and a novel that I've been looking for. Then we'll lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, and make a brief stop at Quality Quidditch Supplies. Jamie is Gryffindor's seeker. Did you know that? He's the youngest one in over a century."

"Oh, really? He must have inherited James Potter's talent."

"Yes, he is gifted on the broomstick. Jamie, tell Miss Umbridge about the amazing dive you did last year your first time flying." Snape watched the woman out of the corner of his eyes. They would present no fault, and she would be hard pressed to find one.

-----

Snape found Jamie in his pajamas staring wide-eyed at the Christmas tree, almost in disbelief, as if he had never seen one before. "Merry Christmas, Jamie."

Jamie's eyes snapped up to him. "Merry Christmas, sir."

Snape held out the forgotten blue plush robe and helped Jamie pull it on. "Why don't you start in on those presents? Jitter will wait breakfast until we're ready for it." He sat down on the sofa with his steaming cup of coffee while Jamie knelt in front of the tree and opened the first box, revealing a brand new pair of quidditch boots that were actually his size and made from sturdy black leather. Matching leather gloves and gauntlets were tucked into them.

The pleasure in those green eyes was easily apparent. "Thank you, sir. They're wonderful."

"I'm glad you think so. Try them on. Do they fit?"

"Perfectly."

They didn't get to breakfast until ten-thirty, but spent the morning exchanging gifts and enjoying the pleasant time. Snape was relieved to have purchased adequate things for the boy. Jamie was amazed to have received any presents at all, but obviously pleased with such wonderful gifts. They ate breakfast in a companionable silence, and retreated to their rooms to dress, before meeting in the study for a few rounds of Wizarding Chess. All in all, it was a pleasant Christmas.


	11. The Diary of TM Riddle

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

**Disclaimer: See chapters 1-11. Also the valentine poem is taken from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.**

Ron thought that it was poetic justice when Hermione ended up half-cat/half-human. She had apparently returned to Hogwarts early and tried her polyjuice potion on her own (Her parents had paid for the extra potions ingredients since they were for a 'school project'). Jamie just looked frustrated, but had received her apology and began visiting her in the hospital wing. Draco always waited just outside for them to come back out so Jamie and he could return to whatever activity they had been engaged in, be it Defense Against the Dark Arts Lessons, or quidditch. Sometimes Ron tagged along, but he was extremely careful not to do anything to antagonize Jamie's new friend, for fear that he would lose Jamie as a result. As long as he kept his mouth shut, Draco did, which was a new and startling development for Ron. But he still hated the Slytherin.

Ron had accidentally given Draco a good laugh when he slipped about the purpose of Hermione's potion. Draco thought that it was terribly funny that Hermione Granger thought that he was Slytherin's heir. "If I was related to Salazar Slytherin, don't you think I would have mentioned it by now?" he had sputtered, holding his sides as he laughed. "I can trace my family back to Merlin's stepdaughter, Alexia. If I was related to a founder, even Gryffindor or Hufflepuff I would definitely have used it to my advantage back in first year." After he had stopped laughing, he explained to Ron everything he knew, which was about the same as Jamie. Fifty years ago, the Chamber was opened and a muggleborn girl died. And no, his father didn't go to this school fifty years ago, he was an alumni of the class of '79 and his grandfather was an alumni of the class of '47.

-----

Draco had just tagged along after Ron and Jamie's visit to the Hospital Wing with the intention of remaining outside, but since he was in the middle of a disagreement with Jamie considering the newly discovered quidditch talent, Viktor Krum, he ended up following the boys inside and sitting at the foot of Hermione Granger's bed while still squabbling. He overheard her whisper a question about clues to the Chamber of Secrets, to Weasley, but the boy shook his head. "Not getting into it anymore," he insisted stubbornly. "What's this?" He pulled the card out from under Hermione's pillow and yanked it out of her reach. "To Miss Granger, wishing you a speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher, Profe . . . fess . . . or Lock . . . Lockhart, Order of Mer . . . Merlin, Th . . . Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark . . . Force Defense League, and five-time wi . . . winn . . . er of Witch Weekly's Most-Charm . . . arming-S . . . Smile Award," Ron managed through bursts of laughter. "You sleep with . . . with this under your _pillow_?"

Draco didn't bother hiding his laughter although Jamie tried very hard not to smile. Hermione scowled at all of them and refused to answer. In fact, she picked up the nearest book and began to read, ignoring them until they all left, trooping up to the Gryffindor Common Room to get Jamie and Ron's homework from Potions. Draco had offered to go over it with them if they explained the Transfiguration to him and then they would all (or rather Draco and Ron) suffer through the insult to the noble pursuit of Defense Against the Dark Arts-a short story about the next loathsome foe that Gilderoy Lockhart was sure to vanquish. Ron suggested that the loathsome foe could be Lockhart himself, while Draco insisted that it was a wayward wig, using the alliteration that their teacher seemed so fond of. Jamie topped them all, by suggesting themselves, The Terrible Twosome-er-Threesome.

On their way back down to the library, they overheard Filch screeching in the Girls' Bathroom, and peeked around the doorway to see the old man yelling at a wailing Moaning Myrtle, who didn't seem to care that he was in there. Fortunately Filch didn't see them hide behind a statue as he stomped out with threats about seeing Dumbledore.

"What kind of ghost haunts a bathroom?" Ron muttered.

"One who died there?" Draco started towards the stairs when he saw Jamie looking back over his shoulder at the sobbing ghost. He could read Jamie's thoughts just by his expression. His Gryffindor Chivalry was kicking in. Not messing with the Chamber of Secrets was one thing. Ignoring a crying girl was another.

Before either Draco or Ron could stop him, Jamie entered the bathroom and stepped over next to the ghost, careful to watch his step on the flooded floor. "Are you okay?" he asked softly.

Myrtle looked up at him with her eyes brimming with tears behind the glasses. "They threw a book at me," she wailed. "Are you going to throw something at me?"

"Of course not, who on earth would do something mean like that?"

"I don't know," she sobbed. "I was just minding my own business, thinking lovely things about death, and then someone threw a book at me!"

"Well, at least you didn't get hurt. You can't feel it," Ron offered. It was the wrong thing to say, and the sinks immediately doused Ron for his troubles.

**"My feelings are hurt, you idiot boy!"** Myrtle raged.

"We know," Jamie spoke up. "We're sorry, Myrtle. It was an awful thing for them to do, and I think you should tell the Headmaster if Filch really does drag him down here. There's no excuse for being mean."

"Where did the book go, Myrtle?" Draco asked impatiently. "You can show it to the Headmaster as evidence."

"It washed out. It's over there, under the sinks," Myrtle sniffed. "And I don't want it. Take it with you, the nasty little thing."

She pointed to a tiny thin book across the bathroom and Draco sloshed over to pick it up, but Ron blocked him at the last minute. "Don't! Some books that my dad's confiscated are bloody dangerous."

"Relax, Weasley. My father's told me about the type of spells needed to make a violent book. No one's gonna waste that amount of time and energy on this old thing." He picked it up with two fingers and grimaced. "It's a diary. One of the girls must have decided to ditch it, so no one could find out about their stupid crushes. T. M. Riddle," he read in puzzlement. "I don't know any Riddles in our year or Slytherin."

"T. M. Riddle won an award for Special Services to the School fifty years ago," Ron grimaced. "I'd know, because I threw up slugs all over it at detention and spent an hour scrubbing it."

"That explains why the dates are so old. Muggle-born kid too, this came from Vauxhall Road. The stupid thing is empty in any event." Draco started to throw it away, but Jamie stopped him.

"We promised Myrtle that we would get rid of it. Come on, we can toss it out when we get to the Library. Good-bye, Myrtle. Don't worry about Filch."

"Bye, Jamie," the ghost girl sniffed, before diving back down into the u-bend of the toilet. Jamie pocketed the book and with a few quick drying spells, the boys raced off to the Library. By the time they got there, Jamie forgot about the little book in his pocket.

-----

Hermione returned to Gryffindor Tower at the beginning of February minus all cat-like qualities. It was with great reluctance that she followed the three boys down to the Quidditch Pitch instead of starting their Transfiguration Homework immediately. As they all clattered onto the stands, a book fell out of Jamie's pocket and she picked it up. Seeing the date, her eyes lit up. "Jamie, where did you get this?"

He looked at it in confusion as if he didn't know what she was talking about, but then recognition set in. "Oh, I promised to throw it away for Moaning Myrtle. Someone threw it at her. I forgot that it was in my pocket."

Ron groaned upon seeing the book. "Is that the book that belonged to the girl who got that award, Jamie?"

"What award?" Hermione leapt onto the piece of information, practically sinking her teeth into the new knowledge.

"Special Services to the School," Ron grimaced. "Spent hours polishing that stupid shield. Toss it in the rubbish bin next to the locker rooms, Jamie. Pretend you're a chaser."

Hermione practically screeched. "Ron, what are you thinking? It could have special powers."

"It's just an old book," Ron defended himself. "And nothing's written in it, look and see for yourself."

Hermione dove for her bag and presented her revealer. "Someone must have chucked it for a reason. What did T. M. Riddle get the award for?" she asked, as she scrubbed at the page, disappointed when nothing showed up.

"Didn't say, thank goodness. Otherwise I'd still be polishing it. Come on, Hermione. Mal-Draco's been up in the air for five minutes already," Ron whined.

"Maybe Riddle got that award for exposing the Chamber of Secrets! Maybe she was the girl who died! Her diary could tell us all about what happened, what the creature is, where the Chamber is, how to open it, everything!"

"Brilliant theory, Granger," came a sneer from behind her. "But the book is empty. Are you guys coming or what?" Jamie and Ron didn't need a second invitation and were up in the air, before Hermione could protest. With a sigh, she tucked the book deep into her bag, and followed their lead, staying very, very close to the ground.

-----

Hermione found Riddle's name on a list of old Heads, and a Medal of Merit when she dragged the boys up to the Trophy Room to check out the shield. Both Jamie and Ron were thoroughly uninterested, much preferring to go flying or watch Jamie's Defense lessons. But after a few hours of wearing them thin, Jamie did admit that the name T. M. Riddle sounded very familiar, but since he couldn't place it, he didn't see the point in fretting constantly about it. Ron was of the opinion that T. M. Riddle was a female Percy, so they were better off not knowing who it was. Hermione stubbornly insisted that her feelings weren't hurt, but she had the feeling that Jamie didn't believe her.

-----

Draco sat outside the Gryffindor common room bitterly, waiting for Jamie to get away from the other 2/3 of the dream team so that they could have their Defense Lesson. Peeves, who refused to stop singing his Potter-Rotter song, had now made up a dance routine to go along with it. Draco wished that he would just knock it off. The Hufflepuffs were still bitter about the attack on Justin Finch-Fletchley. The Gryffindors still suspected Jamie, and Granger couldn't leave well enough alone.

Draco just hoped that the person opening the Chamber had stopped permanently. Professor Sprout said that in another few months they would have the antidote and Jamie couldn't possibly take any more stress, on top of that evil Umbridge woman who kept 'visiting.' Personally, Draco thought that Umbridge would make the perfect woman for Lockhart. She was afraid of using magic. He couldn't use it properly. Lockhart thought that the person opening the Chamber of Secrets had stopped out of fear of the 'Great Gilderoy Lockhart.' As Weasley had appropriately put it, "Does that person have class with him?"

Draco knew that Lockhart was planning some sort of morale-booster for the school and heard a few rumors that it had to do with Valentines Day. That could not be a good combination.

-----

Ron thought that the vivid pink room must be a practical joke, maybe something that the Twins had had a hand in. Jamie, who was still half-asleep because of a late-night quidditch practice, kept rubbing his eyes as if hoping the decorations would all just disappear. Both suspicions proved false, as a pink-robed Lockhart stood and used the Sonorous Charm to address the school.

"Happy Valentines Day! I want to thank the forty-six people who sent me cards! Headmaster Dumbledore was gracious enough to allow me to plan this little festive occasion. May I introduce our Cupids for the day?"

The Great Hall doors burst open, and the ugliest dwarves that Ron had ever seen entered, with their little wings, and harps. Ron sniggered, and a look up at the Head Table saw a stiff Professor McGonagall scowling, and Snape looked like he had swallowed Polyjuice Potion. He touched Jamie's shoulder. "Your Dad doesn't look too pleased," he muttered.

Jamie forced a nervous smile. "He doesn't like Lockhart, Valentines Day, or the Harry Potter Fan Club. He's probably already anticipating the chaos."

-----

Chaos it would prove to be. The dwarves interrupted classes, chased people down in the halls, and screeched in their off-key voices. Jamie, Draco, Hermione, and Ron all had to outrun a particularly persistent dwarf, diving into Potions, where Snape, himself, slammed the door shut in the face of the dwarf. When the dwarf tried to enter the classroom, Snape banished him to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with firm instructions to never interrupt his class.

"Sorry, Dad," Jamie had whispered. "I couldn't shake him."

"Quite alright, Jamie. Go get your ingredients. I'll spell the door against any more of the little monsters."

At the end of class, Snape permitted every one; even the Gryffindors to use his office fire to floo to Transfiguration, and McGonagall in turn flooed them to Charms. Sadly, in order to get to History of Magic, they had to leave the safety of the classrooms and enter the perilous hallways. The dwarf caught sight of Jamie and started yelling at him to slow down. Jamie made a run for it, but was promptly tackled and sat upon.

"I have a singing valentine for Jamie Snape," the dwarf said quite calmly.

_His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad._

_His hair is as dark as a black board._

_I wish he was mine. He's really divine,_

_The hero who conquered the Dark Lord._

Jamie tried valiantly to laugh along with his companions, but his shoulders now held a definite slump as Finnegan and Thomas began to mock him. Somewhere between the running and the tackling, the dwarf had knocked over both Hermione and Ginny, so Jamie started helping them gather their things and return them to the bag. Thomas picked up the diary and started to tease Jamie about needing a girlie diary to write in. Malfoy shouted "Expelliarmus!" and returned the diary to Hermione, which Ron was surprised to see, since Draco Malfoy usually didn't behave that decently. But when Malfoy followed up with a warning to keep a better eye on her things, Ron resumed hating his nemesis. He almost hexed him, when the boy hissed at Ginny, "Jamie doesn't appreciate that type of valentine very much, kid." But since Ginny ran off, he decided that his time would be better spent skiving off History of Magic to find her.

-----

Hermione was sorting through her things to replace them in her bag neatly and was greatly shocked when she discovered that the only thing not soaked in her favorite crimson ink, was T. M. Riddle's diary. "Jamie!" she hissed, for the first time in her life ignoring a teacher without already having the notes. "Jamie! Look at this!" She shoved the diary into his lap. "It's still blank! Everything else is covered in ink. This hasn't been touched!"

Jamie opened the book and scanned the pages quickly. "You're right. Weird. Dray, look at this." He picked up his ink and spilled a few drops on the open page. The ink shimmered for a moment and then disappeared.

Hermione could barely sit still in her excitement. "Write in it!"

Hesitantly, Jamie dipped his quill in the bottle and wrote a quick message.

**Hello? I'm Jamie Snape and these are my friends, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger.**

_Hello, Jamie Snape. I am Tom Riddle._

**Tom?**

_Yes, why?_

**We thought you were a girl. We found the diary in the Girls' Bathroom.**

_I guess that explains how the Malfoy and Snape heirs came by my diary. It's a good thing that my memories are too well preserved and well hidden. There are those in power who would not want my little diary read. It tells the story of things covered up at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Terrible things. May I ask if you have ever heard of the Chamber of Secrets? It was I who caught the perpetrator. I can show you if you like._

Jamie slammed the book shut.

Hermione cried out in frustration. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to go hand this in to my dad. I promised not to mess around with the Chamber of Secrets and I fully intend to keep my word." Jamie shoved the book into his bag and turned his attention back to Professor Binns. Once both boys finally fell asleep out of sheer boredom, Hermione stole it out of his bag and returned it to hers. She would talk with Tom M. Riddle later.

-----

**I'm Hermione Granger. Do you really know about the Chamber of Secrets?**

_Of course, I know about the Chamber of Secrets. I already told you that I was the one to catch the perpetrator. Where did you all go earlier?_

**Jamie is a little paranoid. I'm really sorry. Do you think that you could tell me about the Chamber of Secrets? You see, it's been opened again and muggleborn students keep getting attacked. What happened back then? How did you stop it?**

_It was rather difficult. I could show you if you like. I knew that it was my duty as Head Boy to stop it. After all there were attacks for months and then the monster killed a girl. So I intervened, and the oaf was expelled. I got a shiny trophy and a pat on the head for my hard work and everyone just forgot about it, calling all of the attacks freak accidents until no one cared enough to find out the truth. But would you like to see the moment I caught him?_

**Yes, please.**

The diary promptly flipped open to June 13. Hermione found herself falling off the common room couch, someone grabbing her shoulder as she fell and quite suddenly she was on her feet again with a terrified Jamie beside her. They stood in the middle of the Headmaster's office with Dumbledore's predecessor, Headmaster Dippet, sitting at the desk. Jamie was now crouching on the floor with his inhaler and trying to breathe normally and yet teacher completely ignored them. Hermione stepped forward and snapped her fingers directly in front of him, but he didn't react at all. She turned back to face Jamie who was now putting away his inhaler but remained nearly as pale as Malfoy. "He doesn't even know we're here. What are you doing here, Jamie?"

"I tried to stop you," he said bitterly. "Do you believe me that we shouldn't have gotten involved now? We're fifty bloody years in the past and invisible!"

"Relax, I'm sure Tom will return us once we've seen whatever happened."

As Hermione spoke there came a knock at the door and the old man bade who ever it was to enter. A tall handsome boy wearing the Hogwarts School Uniform and a Prefect Badge entered the office, sweeping his hat from his jet-black hair politely. He rather looked a bit like the old Harry, before he got so dreadfully thin and started to grow out his hair. Hermione's first impression of him was a sensitive, intelligent boy probably in Fifth or Sixth Year, and rather dashing if one was not actually partial to red hair. By shifting her position, she could see that he wore a Slytherin tie, but his clothes looked as if they had been neatly mended rather than purchased new. He sat in the chair across from Professor Dippet and clutched his hat awkwardly in his hands as if he was terribly nervous. Listening in on the conversation, Hermione believed her observations to be very accurate. An orphan like Harry, Tom Riddle was everything she thought he would be. He explained to the headmaster about his parents and reiterated the question of whether he could stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. He looked very upset when he was told no, and excused himself politely from the older man's presence, walking quickly down towards the dungeons.

A tall wizard with a long auburn beard stopped him. The bright blue eyes told Hermione that it was a fifty year younger Dumbledore. The usually benevolent smile was serious as if something truly awful was troubling him. "What are you doing, wandering around this late, Tom?"

"I had to see the headmaster, sir." This answer seemed to pass inspection, because after a long stare, the teacher dismissed Tom and the boy soon rushed down to the dungeons. Instead of going to the Slytherin Common Room, he hid in the Potions Classroom as if he was waiting for something.

"I want to go back before Dad notices that I'm gone, Mione. I was supposed to go straight back down for my lesson. I can't believe you not only stole that book, you tried to use it alone!"

"Shh. Someone's coming, Jamie. This is it. We'll be able to stop the Heir of Slytherin now."

They followed the dark outline of a huge boy about Dudley's size but twice his height, very near to the Slytherin prefect's height actually, but the voice that was coaxing sounded considerably younger.

"Evening, Rubeus."

"What yer doin' down here, Tom?"

"It's all over. I'm going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They're talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don't stop."

The other boy protested, over the steadily increasing volume of an odd rustling and clicking. He was backed against the door, as if shielding its contents from the older boy. Hermione thought that Tom's arguments were convincing. How on earth could anyone protest the right of a parent to see the monster that killed their only child dead? Tom was completely right. Monsters don't make good pets. There was a struggle. Both Jamie and Hermione screamed when the giant black thing with multiple legs and sharp teeth took off running down the corridor. Then the entire scene disappeared and they landed in a heap on the floor beside the couch that Hermione had been perched on earlier, in order to look up at an amazed Ron.

"Bloody hell. What happened?"

Since Jamie was once again breathing through his inhaler, Hermione found her voice first. "It was Hagrid, Ron. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago. That must be why he was expelled."

-----

Ron sat between his two best friends the next morning, neither of whom were speaking to each other. Hermione took it as a great personal insult that Jamie insisted she was nutters to think such a thing about Hagrid. Even more so, that Jamie would believe a prefect of all things to have made a mistake.

Jamie was angry that Hermione had stolen the diary, used the diary alone, and believed ill of Hagrid. The fact that she had confounded him in order to keep him from immediately turning in the diary didn't help either. And now the book was gone. When they woke up, Jamie discovered his trunk torn apart and Hermione confirmed that hers was as well, and that Tom Riddle's diary was gone. Jamie thought this proved that the book was evil and was greatly disturbed by the fact that it must have been a Gryffindor Girl, since no one else knew the password and no boy could climb the staircase to the girls' dorms. Hermione tried to point the finger at Draco, saying that Jamie had probably given the boy their password and he used some form of dark magic to get up the stairs. That brought them to the current situation of not speaking.

Ron was caught somewhere in the middle. While Hagrid was notorious for his choices in 'pets' (the most flagrant of which consisted of a massive boarhound, a dragon, and a large three-headed dog), Ron knew just as well as the others that Hagrid would never stay silent about a creature if humans were in danger, especially when those humans included Jamie and Hermione. If Hagrid had set the creature free, he most certainly wasn't controlling it, and definitely would have kept it in the Forbidden Forest rather than Hogwarts.


	12. Double Trouble

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

**Author's Note: Here's the next chapter! And Guess what! I added Jamie's POV just for you. It's in bold print, and you won't see it again until the very end of the story, three or four chapters from now. Flashbacks are in italics, and if you would review with your response to the mental image described at the bottom, I would appreciate. I swear it just came to me one day and I started laughing. I just had to use it in my story and it gave some levity after a very serious and dark chapter. Poor Jamie! Poor Draco!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable as JKR's great work. Most of the plot and OCs like Jitter, and Tanya belong to me though.**

**Warnings: British Language, Child Abuse, permanent injury.**

Draco tossed on the first things he touched in his trunk. He was going out to play quidditch with Jamie today and practice going for the snitch. Their races were spurring them on to resetting the speed records for both houses and they were only three seconds shy of topping Cedric Diggory's Hufflepuff record. He had every intention of slaughtering the fifth year prefect's untouched record before the summer holidays.

-----

"You're getting slow, Dray!"

Draco scowled at Jamie's taunt but didn't turn around. He knew a diversionary tactic when he heard one. He was a pro at using them himself after all. The snitch was close to him. He saw it twinkling twelve feet to his right and started racing for it. Jamie may have been (emphasis on the may have been) the better seeker, but Draco's broom was simply better and he had a forty foot lead. Ten seconds later, with the snitch firmly in his grasp, he was surprised to see how close to him Jamie had been.

"No fair," Jamie teased. "You had a head start."

"And a better broom," Draco smirked. "Why don't you ask Professor Snape to just by you a Nimbus 2001. He would if you asked him, you know?"

"I don't need a new broomstick," Jamie explained for the thousandth time. His mutter of "Don't want to be greedy" prompted Draco to give the traditional argument yet again.

"You are the least greedy person I know, Jamie. Twenty brand new broomsticks won't ever spoil you. You're a sodding angel."

"Am not."

"Are too. Ask any teacher. Or any girl in Hogwarts. The sixth year Ravenclaw prefect, Clearwater or something? I overheard her tell her friends that Professor Snape's son was the most 'adorable little boy I ever laid eyes on,'" Draco teased in a high-pitched voice. "And of course the first year girls worship the ground you walk on." Jamie was turning bright red, and Draco felt that his best friend had been teased enough, so he abruptly changed the subject. "We only have two weeks before Easter break. Are you going home or staying here?"

"Probably stay here, since you talked him into taking me home last time." Jamie smirked. "Yeah, I know that was you."

"Too smart for your own good, Jamie-boy. You should have been a Ravenclaw."

"The sorting hat only suggested Slytherin and Gryffindor. Sorry."

Draco was about to respond, but was sidetracked by the group of people heading towards the pitch. They were all adults, but none of them were teachers. "Jamie?"

Before the other boy could turn to look, a squat witch shrieked, "Accio Harry Potter!" Nothing happened, and Draco shoved his friend behind him. But the witch learned her lesson as the next words out of her mouth were "Accio Harry James Potter-Snape!" Draco flew after his friend, but he heard the stun spell a second too late and failed to dodge it in time. The ground came up to meet him at an astonishing speed.

-----

When Draco came to, he was in the hospital wing. He tried to sit up, but the fiery pain shooting up his spine stopped him. His startled yelp brought Madame Pomfrey running although Professor Snape reached him first. The man guided him back down against the pillows and asked desperately, "Where's Jamie, Draco?"

"She summoned him," Draco tried to explain. "That fat toad witch, Umbrella-something."

"Umbridge," Professor Snape muttered angrily, looking up to Dumbledore who had just appeared. "Which means Fudge is in on it as well." The wizard closed his eyes in frustration. "We'll never link it to him. We'll be lucky to find any documentation at all in the Ministry."

"We'll find him, m'boy," the headmaster promised. "We'll start looking right away."

Draco was dimly aware of Madame Pomfrey heading towards them but drifted off before she reached his bedside.

-----

When he next woke up, Weasley and Granger of all people were sitting by his bedside. Granger was sitting at the foot of the bed reading a thick book with a decidedly cool attitude. Weasley sat in the chair next to him, fiddling with a couple of gobstones. With a groan, Draco shoved himself upright, relieved to have the pain from earlier gone. "Somebody tell me what the heck is going on. Now."

Ron cracked a weak grin. "You know more than us. All Snape would tell us is that Umbridge kidnapped Jamie and to stay out of his way until he finds them."

"So you're here for information only then?"

Granger shut her book with a sniff. "Of course. And this is the only place we can count on seeing Snape at all. He checks in on you every six hours like clockwork for the last three days."

Ron had turned a little red. "Jamie would have our heads if you were really hurt, so . . ."

"Don't sweat it, Weasley. I'm still in one piece apparently, so you're free to leave."

"I didn't mean it like that, Malfoy! Look, Jamie is our friend and I know that now he's yours too. I really don't want to just sit by myself in the common room waiting for him to get back, so if you just shut your trap and stop baiting us, we can wait together like civilized people."

Draco blinked in surprise. "Fine, then. Where to?"

"You're not allowed out of that bed, Mr. Malfoy!" Pomfrey appeared and started to fuss, propping pillows up behind him. "That spinal injury would have left you paralyzed if you were a muggle!"

"Good thing, I'm not a muggle then," Draco said dismissively.

"You are to get rest and take it easy until all of the tissues have had a chance to mend. That means that you will not leave this bed until your parents arrive to take you for the break. You will continue to take it easy at home and there will be no flying whatsoever for three weeks, do you understand me? If you aggravate that injury, not even magic will be able to heal it."

"Got it. Bed rest." Draco swallowed the potion she thrust at him and waited for her to disappear in the office before making a face at the awful taste. "Definitely not one of Professor Snape's," he grimaced. "Since I have nothing better to do, want a round of chess, Weasley?"

"If you tell us what happened, then you have a deal."

"Fine. It's like this. We were flying on the quidditch pitch, when I spotted this crowd of freaky ministry officials heading toward us. Umbridge looked up at us and tried a summoning spell of all things with the wrong name . . ."

-----

A borderline dark blood ritual pinpointed Jamie's exact location inside of a little used Ministry building that served as holding cells for muggle criminals. It was so weakly guarded that they could apparate directly inside of the building. Dumbledore and Snape landed next to a desk where the squat toad-like woman sat working on paperwork. Snape spared the sputtering woman no attention, moving quickly to the cell behind her. He would have blasted it off of its hinges if he didn't have an inkling of suspicion that they had kept the boy in darkness for the last four days. He finally managed the correct unlocking spell and opened the door just far enough to admit himself. The single shaft of light drew a whimper from the curled up little boy in the farthest corner, so he closed the disabled door behind him.

"It's alright, Jamie. I'm here."

"Daddy?" It was a broken voice of disbelief in one last hope that made Snape's heart clench.

"Yes, I'm here." A moment later, he felt the body of his twelve-year-old son crash into him and two arms wrap around his waist. Sobs wracked the little boy's frame and Snape held him close. "It's alright, Jamie. We're going to get you out of here."

"I want to go home, Daddy. I want to go home."

At that instant, Dumbledore threw open the door and filled the room with a bright light almost too much for Snape's eyes. The boy cried out in pain and covered his eyes. "HARRY!" the headmaster gasped.

"Dim the lights, Albus," Snape ordered, waiting for him to obey before removing the boy's hands and examining his charge's eyes in the muted light of the headmaster's wand. "His eyes have been weakened again by the disuse."

"We'll take him to the Hospital Wing."

"No."

Dumbledore stopped short. "What?"

"I'm taking him home. When he has recovered, I will think very carefully about whether or not he will be returning to Hogwarts."

Hogwarts is safe, Severus. The wards . . ."

". . . did not prevent him from being kidnapped. It did not prevent Draco from falling four stories or inform us of the incident, and it will not prevent them from returning to cause trouble."

"Is Draco okay?" Jamie broke through worried about his friend.

"Yes. He'll be fine Jamie." Reassured, the little boy settled comfortably against his father's side. "I will return to Hogwarts in three hours to teach my class and check on Draco before he goes home." Snape gave a grim look in the direction of Umbridge who now lay stunned and bound awaiting new aurors, wrapped both arms once more around his son, and disapparated to the manor.

-----

Draco's look of confusion when his father showed up to take him home for Easter break stayed with Snape. It followed him as he worked in his study, played with Jamie, cleaned the mess Tanya's latest prank had created, and tried to relax, but he pushed it away until the last Friday before returning to Hogwarts.

He was tucking Jamie in and mussed the messy black curls affectionately as the boy dozed off. His son . . . **his** son . . . slept peacefully and had for several days now. With any luck the kidnapping's effects would continue to disappear. He retrieved the glowing glass ball from his son's lax grip and placed it on the bedside table with the crooked glasses, Jamie's inhaler, and the bottle of Dreamless Sleep. It brought memories of Draco's first year back.

_"Draco? What are you doing up?"_

_"Couldn't sleep, sir. May I help you with that?"_

_"If you wish. Add the bat wings and stir clockwise fourteen times before removing it from the open flame."_

_"Yes, sir."_

_The youth took over the aging potion and Snape moved on to brewing veritaserum. The next time he looked at the clock, he discovered it to be half past midnight. "That's enough for tonight. Thank you for your assistance, but you had best go to bed. Here, I think you'll need this." He offered the red vial to the boy who froze staring at the potion. "Draco?"_

_"No. No, sir. I don't need that." The boy sounded almost panicked as he backed away._

_Snape put a hand on his shoulder to keep the boy from running into the wall. "Draco, this is dreamless sleep. It won't hurt you. What the devil did you think it was?"_

_Draco had visibly relaxed and now shrugged. "This nutrient potion that my mother gives me all the time. It tastes awful."_

_"Must to provoke a reaction like that. Dreamless Sleep is tasteless. Take some and go to bed. You're excused from Potions tomorrow."_

_"Thank you, Professor. Good night."_

Snape had never thought any further about that episode from Draco's first year, but now it brought a questioning mood. In the battle to get Jamie to a healthy weight, he had used dozens of different potions with different nutrients. He could not recall a single red one. He summoned _A Potions Compendryum_ and sorted through the section of color-coded potions. As he thought, there were no red nourishment potions listed. In fact the only other potion as bright a red as Dreamless Sleep was a dangerous poison used for torture and applied superficially, known as Draconis Caedesis.

Snape froze. If Lucius and Narcissa were using Draconis Caedesis, magically brewed dragon's blood, on Draco; if he had missed it for well over a year . . . He jumped to his feet and fire-called Albus. "Sorry to wake you, but I'm afraid that Draco may be in trouble. I have reason to believe Lucius and Narcissa are using Draconis Caedesis on him."

"I'll meet you there after I alert Minerva."

Ordering Jitter to guard Jamie through whatever means necessary, Snape flooed to Malfoy Manor. Dumbledore stumbled out a moment later. "Where?"

"Upstairs. First door to the left."

The sight that greeted their eyes was a terrible one that would haunt Snape for years to come.

Draco was chained facedown on the bed. His skin was pale and tinged blue as if cold, stripes of red across his back and legs, the acidic substance eating through his skin as he thrashed under the cruciatus curse that Lucius had cast.

"Cancelato."

"Aw, Severus," Narcissa whined. "It was my turn next."

"Petrificus Totalis." Snape didn't bother to watch the Malfoys fall, but rushed to the child's side. Thankfully he discovered a golden vial of phoenix tears, and began administering three drops to each stripe, before the acid could reach the boy's bones and organs. The boy didn't move a muscle even after Dumbledore released the chains. "Draco can you hear me?" The boy didn't respond, didn't move.

"Severus, Albus, what has happened here?" McGonagall joined them at the bed, gasping at the severity of the abuse. "I'll do that, Severus. Find out what potions have been used on him."

There was a tray full of potions on the bed stand, in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. Most caused pain or were mild potions to force the boy to humiliate himself by wetting himself or throwing up. Cruel, but no long lasting physical effects. That damage was already done. But the vial of Draconis Caedesis sat there still open and a short blue round bottle caught his eye. He shook it, sniffed it hesitantly and cautiously touched it. It was like touching ice and bitterly cold. "Bruma. Turn him over."

Dumbledore paused in healing the boy's mangled wrists from the damage inflicted by the unforgiving chains and complied. Draco remained limp and unresponsive, eyes wide open but vacant. If not for the slight rise and fall of his chest, Snape would have declared him dead. The bluish tinge to his skin was darker on his stomach trailing up his chest and along the boy's sore throat. Around the boy's mouth were frozen crystals from breathing. Snape searched for the antidote and tilted the bottle into Draco's mouth, massaging the sore throat to ensure that it was swallowed. Then he began to administer some of his own nerve repair potion to combat the effects of the Cruciatus Curse.

By now Poppy and another medi-witch had arrived and taken over the job of healing the lacerated wrists and administered pain reliever potion, talking to the boy all the while. Snape decided that it was a useless waste. Draco was not in the cold body. He was locked somewhere in his mind completely shut down, where he was safe from his parents' insanity.

"Can you sit up, Draco?" Pomfrey asked kindly. When there was no response she looked at Snape in confusion.

"Sit up, boy!" a voice rasped from the corner. Instantaneously, Draco sat up and remained in the position. "He obeys orders right off. Trained him proper."

Madame Pomfrey shook with barely suppressed rage, but professionalism allowed her to restrain it. Snape didn't even bother trying. He fired off the first hex to come to mind and left the now contorted man in the small, conjured lock box.

Snape returned to Draco and sadly ordered him to stand. There was no shame or humiliation, or sorrow in him as he obeyed. The boy was little more than a puppet.

Madame Pomfrey gasped. "That should be impossible. The aggravation of his spinal injuries should have made him a paralytic."

Snape studied the boy and realized that Draco floated just above the ground. "It's self preservation magic, Poppy. If I remove the order or he comes to, it will collapse."

McGonagall wiped away her tears furiously, and turned on the Malfoys. "If this boy does not recover, I will personally ensure that you both receive the dementor's kiss! To do this to your own child!" The transfiguration teacher twitched and Narcissa suddenly became a very ugly hag, which screamed as she caught sight of herself in a mirror across the room.

Snape silenced her and wrapped his outer robe around Draco both for warmth and to cover him, as the social worker from W.C.P.S. appeared, files in hand. "Ma'am, do you possess a dicto-quill? Good, I think that it would be wise to take a deposition from the boy now. After this automatic behavior disappears, I doubt you'll be able to wring the truth out of him, or if he'll remember it at all."

"On the ever of April 19, 2002, a deposition was taken from Draco Nathaniel Malfoy, age thirteen, to be used in the prosecution of Lord Lucius Day Malfoy and Lady Narcissa Echo Malfoy, nee Black on the accounts of child abuse, endangerment of a minor, neglect, and the illegal use of classified potions and unforgivable spells. This deposition was taken in the presence of Elaine Smythe, social worker; Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; Professors Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape of the same school, Madame Poppy Pomfrey, school nurse, Healer Jessalyn Erinwick of St. Mungos, and both defendants in the Malfoy ancestral family manor."

"Tell us about this last week, Draco," Snape ordered.

"I was chained to the bed since I arrived home. Lord or Lady Malfoy would at random intervals, appear and force potions into me or use the cruciatus and imperious curses on me along with minor hexes. When they appeared together, both would apply curses, potions, and Draconis Caedesis simultaneously. When they were finished, a house-elf would heal all of my injuries."

"Tonight Professor Snape and the Headmaster appeared during the torture and freed me. Professor McGonagall, Madame Pomfrey, and a woman I didn't recognize appeared soon after and helped them to heal me."

The boy's voice was slow and emotionless, as if reeling off facts for a History of Magic test. "When did the abuse start?" Ms. Smythe asked sadly. Draco didn't respond. Snape repeated the question in the form of a command.

"Forever."

"More specific details, please."

Through carefully worded orders, Snape and the social worker drew a twisted tale of horror and adults using magic to traumatize a child from a young boy, only thirteen years old. It took three hours to learn of the story, and by the time it had finished, Snape refused to take the boy anywhere but home with him.

-----

**Jamie wasn't sure what had awoken him. Since his rescue, and subsequent use of the word 'daddy,' the twelve year old had grown bolder. So he quietly got up and went to investigate, drawing his wand. The noise came from down the hall, lowly muttered words behind a door to a spare bedroom.**

**"Dad?" Jamie pushed open the door and peered into the guestroom. A dark figure moved towards him immediately and Jamie accepted the fierce embrace. "Dad, what's wrong?" He looked at the bed and gasped upon recognizing the occupant. "Dray!" He started to pull away, but his Dad didn't release him.**

**"I need to talk with you first. Please go sit in my study until the headmaster arrives to help keep an eye on Draco. Wait there. Then I will explain everything."**

**"Okay," Jamie said hesitantly, casting one last look at his friend, before obeying and going directly to the study at the end of the hall. It was really cold in here. He snapped his fingers and Jitter appeared. "I'm sorry, Jitter, but Dad asked me to wait in here and I left my robe and slippers in my room. Could you please fetch them?"**

**"Of course, Master Jamie." The elf popped out and back in again with the desired articles. "Jitter shall start a fire for young master too."**

**"Thank you, Jitter," Jamie said appreciatively. "I'm sorry that I woke you . . ."**

**Jitter shook his head. "No. No. Jitter was up and just finished helping Master with the poor blonde boy."**

**"Oh. Well, I'd still like to make it up to you. Can I do something for you?"**

**"Not necessary . . ." Jitter broke off with a gleam in his eye. He looked around furtively, and then leaned in close. "Actually, young master, Jitter has always wanted to try a bubble bath," he confided nervously.**

**Jamie blinked. "Oh. Okay. If you've finished with my father's orders, than you have my permission to use my private bathroom for a bubble bath."**

**"Thank you, Master Jamie!" The house-elf bowed a half dozen times before dashing from the room.**

**Jamie laughed at the elf's antics and settled back into his father's study chair. He had almost fallen asleep, when his father appeared, but jumped up immediately. "Is Draco alright?"**

**"Jamie, has Draco ever said anything that would lead you to believe he had been abused?"**

**Startled, Jamie sat back down and shook his head. Then he thought it over carefully, before providing a verbal answer. "No, sir. He is extremely overprotective of me, but he has never given me the impression that he needed help. I would have told you immediately, if he had."**

**"I thought so, and I'm sorry to have implicated that you wouldn't have. I merely needed to confirm my suspicions that Draco doesn't remember anything once he is removed from his father's house."**

**"What happened to Draco?" Jamie asked fearfully. "He was supposed to take it easy because of his back. Madame Pomfrey said . . . did they . . ."**

**"Draco has lost the use of his legs due to the stress placed on his body from the use of curses and potions designed to cause pain. It aggravated his spinal injury," Snape said solemnly. "His parents have been using magic against him since he was very young."**

**Jamie blinked back tears furiously. "It's not fair. He never had anybody to tell."**

**"No, it's not fair. Both you and Draco have been treated cruelly by the people entrusted with your care. Both of you could have died at any time, and I missed it for far too long." Snape hugged his son, then took a deep breath and tilted his son's chin up to look into his eyes. "Is there anything you have not told me about the Dursleys, Jamie? Anything at all?"**

**Jamie blinked in surprise, but shook his head. "No, Dad. They just beat me when they lost their temper and neglected me. What did Draco's parents do to him?"**

**"It was very severe abuse. They used some unforgivable curses on him, and some very painful potions. They did everything they could to humiliate him and make him even more vulnerable. He has tried to block it out, apparently successfully. I do not want you to tell him that you know any details. Let him tell you once he admits it to himself."**

**"Yes, sir. Can I see him again? Please?"**

**Snape agreed and led him back to the guest bedroom where Draco was now awake and glaring angrily at Dumbledore with hands clamped over his ears. Jamie rushed to his side and blocked Draco's line of sight, convincing the boy to drop his hands.**

**Snape joined the boy's on the bed and checked Draco's forehead for a fever, then his pulse and breathing rate. "How are you feeling, Draco?"**

**"Fine," Draco spat, pulling away from their hands as far as possible and sent a pointed glare at Dumbledore.**

**"Albus, would you excuse us for a moment?"**

**"Certainly, my boy."**

**As soon as the man left, Draco turned panicked eyes on Professor Snape. "I can't move my legs! I can't even feel them!"**

**Jamie watched as his father wordlessly pressed a calming potion into Draco's hands. Without hesitation, Draco drained it, and stared up at the teacher, still clutching the empty vial.**

**"Do you remember anything about the last week at all, Draco?"**

**"No."**

**"You've lost the use of your legs due to your stressed back injury."**

**"How?" Draco pleaded, desperately.**

**"The cruciatus curse that your father held on you would be my first guess."**

**Draco's breathing became ragged and erratic. "No. No, my father doesn't do that to me. He doesn't hurt me ever. I'm not abused. I'm not!" The glass vial shattered, but Professor Snape vanished the shards before they could strike anything. Draco curled up as much as possible and began to cry gut-wrenching sobs.**

**It was the first night that Jamie stayed up until five in the morning comforting his blonde friend. It would not be the last.**

-----

It was a very subdued breakfast the next morning. Draco remained asleep upstairs, while Snape took Jamie down for a meal. The house-elf had made them Belgian Waffles with enough side dishes for a minor army. After a moment, he observed some rather abnormal behavior in his elf. Besides a rather shiny and scrubbed appearance, Jitter was practically fawning over Jamie.

After the fifth "Anything you wish, Master Jamie? Jitter will find it!" Snape felt compelled to dismiss the elf for his sanity. He managed a wry smile and turned to Jamie. "Do you want to explain Jitter's new attitude?"

Jamie had been rather obliviously stirring the strawberry sludge on his waffles and looked up with a startled expression. "What, sir?"

"Have you noticed Jitter's new devotion?"

Jamie caught sight of the elf peeking around the dining room door with an eager expression. "Oh, that. I let him use my bathtub last night. He always wanted to try one." Jamie shrugged. "I didn't think that it would hurt anything. Apparently he enjoyed his first bubblebath."

"Indeed." Snape said it so matter-of-factly that Jamie started giggling. Then after Severus rethought the concept of the House-elf wanting a bubble bath, he couldn't help snickering. Within moments, both were having a much needed laugh as the puzzled Jitter watched.


	13. Spider Tamer

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

**Author's Note: Hermione bashers-she drives me crazy too, but while she may end up a scape-goat on occasion, she remains Harry's best friend in canon and her important role throughout the books have prompted me to have Jamie remain a forgive and forget type of person. The boy's will give her a hard time at the end, but I'm going to leave her as important to Jamie no matter what.**

**Warnings: None.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't sue.**

Ron and Hermione didn't see Jamie at all through the entire feast after Easter Holidays. They kept searching the crowds for a short boy with raven black hair and glasses, but came up with nothing. Worried, they tried to visit the headmaster in his office after the dinner, but he wasn't there. They trudged back up to Gryffindor Tower and decided to stay up and wait until Jamie appeared. If he didn't show up before curfew, Hermione was going straight to McGonagall. Five minutes before curfew, a troubled Jamie entered the room. Ron and Hermione sprang at him and hugged him, asking where he had been and what was going on.

Jamie pulled away from them and sat on the sofa. "Draco got hurt over Easter Holidays. You remember how he messed up his back trying to rescue me from Umbridge? Well, getting hurt again made the damage permanent. He's paralyzed from the waist down."

Ron tried to hide the surprised and pitying emotions he felt, and sneered. "What fancy tricks did he feel the need to try on his broomstick this time? Everyone knows Slytherins are complete idiots who can't follow rules to save their lives."

Jamie leapt up and tackled Ron. "Don't say that! It wasn't his fault, and it's not fair. Don't you ever say something like that about Draco again. He doesn't deserve it! I hate house rivalries! They all suck. I wish that I'd never been sorted! Then I could be friends with anyone I choose. And guess what? I choose Draco!"

Jamie stopped hitting Ron and rolled off of him, just crouching on the carpet and wiping away tears. Ron ignored his bloody nose, and reached over to place a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Jamie. I'm sorry. It's habit to put down Mal-Draco, and Slytherins. I'm very sorry. No one deserves to be paralyzed, you're right."

"What happened, Jamie?" Hermione asked him quietly. "Was it a quidditch accident?"

"I can't tell you," Jamie said in frustration. "I promised Dad I wouldn't, and it's really Draco's secret anyway, but you'll never see the way he really is when you can't see past the stupid grudge. You can't possibly understand him, and I know you both. You won't even try."

"We'll try harder, Jamie," Ron pleaded desperately, afraid that he had lost his best friend. "I promise I'll never call him Malfoy, or complain about his house, or anything ever again. Please forgive me."

"I can't hold what you don't understand against you," Jamie sighed.

"Why is your . . . dad involved, Jamie? Can you tell us that?" Hermione asked quietly.

"He's Draco's legal guardian now," Jamie said placing significant emphasis on the word _now_. "Draco is going to live with us from now on. He's staying in Dad's quarters while at school, until he gets used to the handicap."

The wheels in Ron's head were turning almost as fast as Hermione's. Snape liked Draco, but Draco had parents. Why weren't they taking care of their son? If something had happened to any one of his brothers, his mum would want to fuss over them constantly. Draco was an only child, the only heir anyway. It didn't make sense for a pureblood maniac like Malfoy Sr. to throw away his only son no matter what kind of accident the boy had. That left the option that Snape had taken Draco away, but the only reason he could think for Snape to take a boy from his legal guardians was the reason that he had taken Jamie from the Dursleys. "Draco Malfoy was abused," he whispered in a hushed tone, at the same time Hermione did. "Why?"

"His parents are evil," Jamie muttered. "But you're sworn to secrecy. The Slytherins will know by the end of the week at the latest, but Draco doesn't want to remember it. He's blocked it out. Anything that gets back to him will seem like nasty rumors, because he can't remember what happened. He stubbornly maintains that he must have fallen down the stairs or something. He refuses to listen to anything else. So you can't tell anyone and you can't try to talk to him or anything. Understand?"

"Yes," Ron nodded solemnly. "I'm really, really sorry and I promise to make it up to you and Draco, Jamie."

-----

The room that Draco had visited so often while Jamie was sick, now belonged to him and he could not leave. Draco had long since counted the stones that he could see making up the room, and had read through all of his school books twice and was about to die from boredom . . . or the never-ending pain in his lower back. The worst part was that he was all alone while Professor Snape taught and Jamie was in class.

He turned at the grating sound and found that the wardrobe had suddenly swung away from the wall. Draco stared in surprise at the redheaded girl who had suddenly appeared in his room. "How did you get in here?"

She froze, but then shrugged. "The portrait's a bit senile. Seems to think I'm my great-aunt Kathleen. She apparently had a valid reason for visiting the potions master fifty years ago."

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to help somebody. I feel so useless now. Each attack, I've been within screaming distance and I should have been able to help, but I never got the chance. So I thought that I could help you."

"No one's been able to do anything. Not even Dumbledore," Draco tried to keep a sneer on his face.

"Maybe I can't fix you, but I could do something for you. I can read to you or play chess or something like that if you like." The girl plopped down without an invitation at the foot of his bed, and Draco stared at Ginny Weasley as if he had never met her before.

"I've read it all already, and I can't sit up to play chess. It hurts too much," Draco said plainly, wondering exactly what she would do next. Apparently this girl was anything but predictable when Jamie wasn't in her immediate presence.

Now she switched positions, so that she was kneeling beside him. "Can you roll over?"

Draco snorted. "That's about all I can do."

"Then do it," she commanded.

Deciding that he was bored enough to do anything for some company, Draco complied and then gasped when Ginny began to massage his shoulders, working her way down his spine, gently, but surely. He couldn't help but relax under the touch, and started to doze off. By the time Ginny had finished working her magic, he was fast asleep.

-----

The next match was Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff and Wood demanded daily practice after dinner, so Jamie went straight from class to dinner to practice to his father's quarters where he completed as much of his homework as possible across the foot of Draco's bed during the blonde boy's naps. More than once, he had awoken the next morning to find a blanket draped over him and his textbooks and glasses neatly stacked on the nightstand, often with corrections made to his homework where necessary. Draco spent a good portion of his evenings fixing Jamie's work from the time the younger boy dozed off until Professor Snape came to tuck his son in as best possible under the circumstances. It was the least he could do for the boy who sat with him through his breakdowns and more than one of his tantrums.

-----

Draco looked up from the book Hermione had brought him the one time she had come with Jamie (Ron and Hermione borderline-sulked in the background for the rest of the visit) to find his best friend completely exhausted, and slightly grumpy. "Perfect Quidditch conditions," he grumbled before dropping to his accustomed place at the foot of the bed with a look of pure bliss. "Match doesn't start until eleven. Wake me quarter of, 'kay?"

"Sure. Get some sleep."

It was after Jamie left, when Snape entered. He felt his new guardian's gaze on him and looked up into worried obsidian eyes. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Miss Granger and Miss Clearwater were attacked and petrified. Minerva has gone down to cancel the game. She'll bring Jamie and Mr. Weasley up to the Hospital Wing."

"Jamie will be devastated. He's been worried about Hermione for ages. I've got to go," he babbled, reaching for the crutches he had yet to master.

Snape stopped him. "It'll be faster if you let me carry you through the floo."

Draco swallowed hard and nodded. He was nowhere near efficient on crutches and he couldn't be slow when Jamie needed his dad and hopefully, his new best friend. The man scooped him up and carried him easily (probably came from carting Jamie around every time something new had it in for the little boy). Flooing was not particularly pleasant, but then they were in the hospital wing and across the aisle from Hermione Granger's bed. Madame Pomfrey was waiting for them and placed an easy chair at the foot of the bed for Draco to be placed in.

"Hermione!" Ron and Jamie ran across the infirmary and came to a halt beside the bed. Ron was holding back tears, but Jamie willingly turned into his father's side to cry. After awhile, he joined Draco on the oversized armchair and waited for Professor McGonagall to come back and ask them her questions. None of them knew what Hermione was doing with a mirror or with the Ravenclaw prefect.

-----

"Jamie, get your invisibility cloak. We're going down to visit Hagrid. Draco, you're coming too." Snape informed them businesslike and turned to his own room to locate suitable outerwear for himself. Both boys hurried to obey, and Draco made no complaint when he was carried yet again through the halls of Hogwarts. Luckily, it was late and there were very few students about. They made the trip across the grounds at a very high speed, and Jamie had to run to keep up.

Hagrid seemed to be expecting them, and he tossed open the door with a loud bang. Draco found himself passed to the large man and then settled on the bed, with Jamie beside him. For the first time, the pair realized that Hagrid was holding a large crossbow and Fang seemed to be on alert rather than lazily sleeping.

"They're coming, Hagrid. Dumbledore just got the owl. They'll be here momentarily. If you choose to run, you best do it now."

"I can't run no where, Sev'rus. I don' wan' ta go ta Azkaban, but they'll think I'm guilty if I run."

"Then pack a few rations and make sure you have the pieces of-your absurd little umbrella with you at all times." Snape reached up to the rafters and pulled down a sack and started filling it with select herbs that hung from Hagrid's ceiling. "Blasted minister . . . no brain cells functioning whatsoever . . ." came a stream of mutterings occasionally punctuated with a curse.

"I didn't do it, Sev'rus. You know I'd never."

"Of course, you oaf," Snape snapped. "Dumbledore and I both know otherwise and if our opinion counted any with our insipid minister, well, a lot of things would be different."

"Follow the spiders, Sev'rus. They'll tell you what happened. I swear I had nothing ta do wit' that nasty business!" Before Hagrid could elaborate further, there was a sharp rap at the door, and Snape made a violent gesture at the boys, prompting Jamie to fling the cloak over both of them, while both men hurriedly sat down with a couple of tankards and some slightly stale rock cakes. Hagrid looked pale as he called out, "Come in."

Dumbledore entered with Fudge at his heels. "Evening, Hagrid, Severus, Fang."

The minister blustered a little bit at finding Snape here, but after kidnapping the man's son, he had every reason to openly fear the man. He finally found his courage and made eye contact with Hagrid. "Dreadfully sorry, Hagrid, but with the attacks and your record, I'm afraid you simply must go to Azkaban. If another perpetrator is caught, then you will be let out with a full apology." His condescending tone of voice told his audience how likely he thought that would be. "Now if you will just come quietly . . ."

"Hagrid had my full and complete confidence," Dumbledore interjected calmly, as if disappointed in Fudge. "This unjust imprisionment will not halt the attacks."

Before the old man could get any further, the door swung open and a tall blonde man stepped into the room. "Excellent, Minister Fudge. I'm so glad that the Ministry can be relied on to take full measures during these unfortunate times."

Snape snarled, "How the hell did you get out?"

Lucius Malfoy tilted his head to the side in a curious expression. "Tut tut, language, my dear Severus. What if your 'son' heard you? Not a prime example of fatherhood, am I right, minister?"

As the minister began licking the boots of the wealthy aristocrat, Draco stared at his father dumbly through the cloak. Part of him wanted to throw it aside and scream for his father to deny the accusations that Dumbledore had made and Snape had confirmed. Another felt the tiniest trickling of fear and knew that Snape would never have removed him from his home if there wasn't good reason. He remained motionless, his fingers clutching Jamie's arm. He felt Jamie's arm go around him under the cloak and welcomed the link to reality, as odd as it was for him.

When Lucius revealed his purpose, Draco felt his heart sink. Whatever was going on would only get worse, if Dumbledore left the school. Hagrid had every right to be upset about that, but it didn't stop the blonde man from casting an extremely strong confundus charm on the giant. As Hagrid followed Fudge out in a daze, Dumbledore faced Lucius Malfoy with a cold stare.

"I will never be gone from this school as long as there are those here, who remain loyal to me. Tell your master that the next time you see him." Without another word, Dumbledore disappeared and Lucius turned to Snape.

"Where is Draco tonight?" he inquired pleasantly. "I'll have him back soon, you know. Narcissa is poised to take the fall already. Why not make it easier on everyone involved? Especially that brat you call a son."

"My son would be more traumatized if I handed over his friend to a sadistic imbecile like you than by having to go to court to fight any claim you have left on Draco. I fully intend to adopt Draco as soon as the trials have commenced. You won't be able to get your hands on him then."

"Watch me."

Snape didn't move for a full five minutes after Lucius left. Then he snapped, "Fang! Guard!" The effect was instantaneous. Fang went rigid and blocked the doorway completely, while Snape turned to them and accepted the armful of frightened boys without a word. After another two minutes, when Jamie could breathe normally, and Draco wasn't staring over his shoulder anymore, Snape readjusted their cloaks and cast a feather light charm on them, so that he could carry both of them at the same time. If any student had been awake beyond curfew and spied, Professor Snape carrying Draco Malfoy and Jamie Snape cradled to his chest, they wouldn't have believed their eyes.

-----

Severus was sitting in his favorite armchair with a new potions compendryum, enjoying the slash of the quill and the vivid red ink that he was using to correct it. He'd make a duplicate and send it back to the ignoramus who had the audacity to publish an incorrect text that could end up killing an unwary reader. Draco was sleeping after his physical therapy session and the entire room was peaceful.

That changed in a matter of seconds when Jamie flung open the portrait with an enthusiastic call. "Dad! Guess what I saw?" The portrait closed behind him and Jamie flung himself to the footstool next to his father's chair. "Remember what Hagrid said about the spiders? While I was coming back from class, I saw a whole bunch of spiders swarming the stained glass window with the Weeping Wastrel on it, and they looked like they were heading down the castle walls, and towards the Forbidden Forest. Isn't that weird?" Not even pausing for breath, Jamie continued. "I thought you would want to know, because a couple of girls are freaking out and Lockhart screamed when Lee Jordan's tarantula crawled over his foot to get to the window."

"Isn't Weasley afraid of spiders too?" came a low drawl from the doorway to the spare bedroom. Draco leaned heavily on the crutches as if not believing that the bracing spells on his legs were there. He slowly but surely made his way over to the sofa, and half-sat/half-fell onto it.

"Hey, Draco. Yeah, Ron hasn't left Gryffindor tower since classes let out. But isn't that weird? How come all the spiders are disappearing? I thought maybe that's what Hagrid meant by following the spiders, so I came to find Dad."

"Which I always want you to do before you get in trouble," Snape broke in sternly. "Hagrid was talking about his pet acromantula, Aragog. He was raising it the year of the first attacks and that was why he was thrown out of school. Dippet foolishly believed it to be the monster."

"Could Aragog know something about it, then?" Jamie asked excitedly.

"It's highly doubtable that a creature locked in a spare broom cupboard could see or hear anything pertaining to the Chamber of Secrets."

Jamie shrugged. "I heard all sorts of stuff in the cupboard. Generally, the cupboards are where all of the plumbing and electricity and ventilation meet up in a muggle home. I know that there is no electricity in the castle, but there has to be ventilation and pipes especially near the potions labs. Sound carries through ventilation shafts and pipes. People aren't very careful about what they say when no one visible is listening."

"Good point, Jamie. You and Draco will stay here. I shall interrogate the beast on my own."

"An acromantula?" Draco gasped. "By yourself?"

-----

"No sodding way!" Ron snuck a look up at Professor Snape from his cauldron. "You're telling me that your dad walked into the Forbidden Forest to find a giant spider? Like it was an ingredient from a storeroom? The man's fearless!"

"Thank you for that assessment, Mr. Weasley. Now if you would turn your attention back to the potion before you emulate Mr. Longbottom in blowing up a cauldron of harmless salve?"

Ron turned bright red. "Sorry, sir." He waited for Snape to turn back to Crabbe and Goyle's cauldron to stomp hard on Jamie's foot. It didn't stop Jamie from snickering at him, but it made him feel better.

Thankfully he made it to the bell without blowing anything up and followed Jamie up to the Staff Room. There was something wrong about being able to walk into the teacher's domain with no consequences and Ron hurried after Jamie towards Professor Snape's rooms. Draco looked up from his book with a wide grin. "Hey, Jamie, Ro-Weasley. Did you bring the book?"

"Yeah, Fred looked at me funny when I asked to borrow it, but he didn't hex it so I consider it a success. What's with the silly smile? You look like the cat that swallowed the canary, and Jamie said that you were having a bad morning?"

Draco shrugged dismissively. "My back feels loads better. So this is _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_? It doesn't look all that informative."

"It's a Third Year Text, not one of those gazillion pound volumes that Professor Snape keeps for potions. You wanted to look up acromantulas and than check out other creatures, right? This gives you the basics according to Fred."

"What did you tell Fred?"

"That you guys tricked me into taking Care of Magical Creatures and I wanted to see what I had gotten myself into. Told him that I didn't fancy taking on a dragon like Charlie before I left Hogwarts. He laughed at me."

"Most do," Draco muttered under his breath. He ducked behind the book when Jamie's head whipped up, but since Ron hadn't heard him, the younger boy didn't say anything. "Okay, Acromantula. What did your dad say again, Jamie?"

"That Aragog is afraid of the monster and wouldn't tell him what it was."

"Sadly, this book doesn't tell us what an acromantula is afraid of. It gives a very good description of what it looks like, which Weasley would probably not like to hear, including eight eyes, sharp pincers, poison-"

"You're right," Ron said faintly. "For once. I don't want to hear it. And how absolutely sure are we that it isn't the monster?"

Jamie glared. "Hagrid swore. And Dumbledore and Dad believe him."

"Actually, the book backs Hagrid up," Draco cut in smoothly. "It doesn't say anything about acromantulas petrifying people."

"Okay," Ron shrugged. "So that lead was a dead end. All we proved is that your dad is completely nutters, and Third Year Texts are basically useless. Next?" He froze. "Jamie?"

"Yeah, Ron?"

"We're talking about the Chamber of Secrets and trying to solve the mystery."

"Just catching on, are you, Weasley?" Draco sneered.

"No. But Jamie was told . . . forbid . . . he . . ."

"That was before the monster attacked one of my best friends, and Hagrid was sent to Azkaban," Jamie inserted stubbornly. "Dad gave me permission to do research. I just have to go to him with what I find before I do something stupid."

"Oh. In that case, what next?"

"We could make a timeline like the muggle policemen do on the telly." Jamie received two identical blank stares. "Okay, someday I'll explain what those things are."

"You do that, Jamie-boy. A timeline isn't a bad idea. Who, what, when, where, how. There's parchment on the desk, Weasley."

**_Jamie comes to live with Professor Snape._**

**_Dobby warns of great evil coming to Hogwarts._**

**_Initial Attack. Mrs. Norris was petrified on Halloween just outside the Girls Toilet on the second floor. Message left on wall. "Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies of the Heir Beware._**

**_Hermione and I do some sleuthing and find the first spiders. Hermione gets the idea for Polyjuice. She gets Lockhart to sign a permission slip for Moste Potente Potions and starts brewing it in the Girls Toilet._**

**_The bludger attacked Jamie at the quidditch game, and Professor Lockhart removed all of the bones in his arm. Dobby appears in hospital wing and confesses to bludger. Colin Creevey is petrified._**

**_Jamie discovers that he's a Parseltongue at the Dueling Club._**

**_Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly-Headless Nick are petrified._**

**_The Polyjuice Potion failed. Hermione turned herself into a cat person._**

**_Someone through Tom Riddle's diary at Moaning Myrtle. Jamie's chivalry demanded we enter the Girls Toilet again and remove the offending book._**

**_Hermione figures out the diary, and Tom Riddle takes her and Jamie back in time to show them how he 'caught' the 'Heir of Slytherin' and what the idiots thought was the monster._**

**_Umbridge kidnaps Jamie and Snape rescues him._**

**_Draco comes to live with Snape and Jamie. He's uh, paralyzed._**

**_Hermione gets petrified along with the Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater returning from the Library._**

**_Hagrid gets sent to Azkaban._**

**_Snape goes into the Forbidden Forest and interrogates Aragog (AKA: giant spider). Aragog is afraid of Monster._**

"Okay, that was useless."

"Ron? How many times did you write Girls Toilet on here?" Jamie smirked. "Anything you want to confess?"

"Shut up, Jamie."


	14. Entering the Chamber

**Author's Note: The list from last chapter is reproduced in this one. You really only need to read the bold part to get the gist.**

Draco heard the familiar sound of the wall shifting and grinned at the red-headed girl who entered his room. "Morning, Ginny. Cutting Defense, are you?"

"Lockhart wouldn't notice if half the class skipped as long as no one interrupted him," she whispered. "I just have to be back in time for Transfiguration."

Draco sat up straight. It sounded like she was trying not to cry. "Are you okay?"

Ginny nodded, even as her bottom lip wobbled dangerously. Wordlessly, she sat next to him and started massaging his shoulders. Within ten minutes, Draco couldn't feel any more pain in his back. He rolled back over and looked at her again. She sniffled. "I tried to talk to Ron and Jamie, but Percy came. I don't want to get into any trouble."

"About what?" Draco was stunned when she began to cry. He wiped away her tears. "Don't cry, Ginny. Please, don't cry. I'm sorry."

She sniffled. "It's all my fault. All of it."

"What's your fault, Ginny? It can't be that bad."

"It is. It's my fault that Colin and Hermione are in the hospital. And all those other petrified people, and poor Mrs. Norris. I'm the one who killed Hagrid's chickens. I didn't know they would stop it."

"How is it your fault?" Then what she said kicked in. "You killed Hagrid's chickens?"

"It was an accident. I was practicing my spells and they were loose. I didn't mean to hit it with the binding curse. Then the second one started squawking and I had to shut it up. I was so scared I'd be in trouble that I hid the bodies back in the coop." She buried her face in her hands and Draco awkwardly patted her back.

"It's okay. Don't worry. I won't tell. I promise."

"I'm such a bad person," she wept miserably.

"No, you're not. You didn't know. And no one else will either, Ginny. I won't tell anyone, not even Jamie," Draco pledged. "You've helped me and now I'll help you."

-----

Ron and Jamie were sprinting for the Staff room at full speed, a scrap of parchment clutched in Jamie's hand. Hermione had done it. The creature in the Chamber was a basilisk. This would have been great and all, if McGonagall hadn't used the sonorous spell to inform all students to return to their dormitories. They ignored it and ran into Snape just outside the staff lounge.

"It's a basilisk," Ron shouted.

Jamie gave his dad the parchment. "This was in Hermione's hand. She figured it out."

'Very typical, Miss Granger. Ten points to Gryffindor."

Ron's mouth dropped. "Is that all?" Then his mind caught up with his mouth. His most hated professor who never gave Gryffindor points, had just done so. "I mean, the teachers have been looking all year, and a ton of students were petrified."

"Mr. Weasley, you may want to be silent now. Professor McGonagall will be here momentarily with your brothers and then . . ." The potionsmaster broke off and stared at the window. "I don't believe it."

"ALL STUDENTS LEAVE THE CASTLE IN AS ORDERLY MANNER AS POSSIBLE. TEACHERS PLEASE ASSIST THE MINISTRY WITH THIS EVACUATION."

"Go into your room, and don't leave, Jamie. Take Mr. Weasley with you. Fudge, Umbridge, and Malfoy are all down there. I will return as soon as possible."

"Wait a minute," Ron yelled. "Why would McGonagall bring Percy and the twins here? And what about my sister?" Professor Snape didn't answer him. "Ginny," he whispered in horror. He turned and leapt out of the room, running down the hall, screaming for his sister. He reached the wall where they found the first message. A new one had been emblazoned on the wall. "HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER." Ron didn't realize that he had stopped, until a strong arm seized him around the waist and hauled him back to the Staffroom. He was roughly thrust through the door, and Snape left without another word.

Jamie knelt next to him. "I'm so sorry, Ron. Come on."

Ron followed Jamie down the corridor that led to the other boy's parent's chambers numbly. His little baby sister was gone. Ginny was gone. He kept repeating the fact to himself, but was unable to process the information. It couldn't possibly be real.

Jamie led him to Draco's room where the blonde boy lay sacked out from sheer exhaustion. He must have had a physical therapy session this morning. Jamie shook him a few times before he woke up. Catching sight of Ron, he started to make a snide comment, but it changed into, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"There was another attack and the monster took his little sister into the Chamber of Secrets."

Draco shoved himself up into a sitting position. "What! Why Ginny? She's a pureblood."

Then it hit Ron hard. "How dare you? How dare you say her name and pretend to care! You're an evil, nasty, horrible Slytherin and probably in on the whole scheme!" He collapsed into tears at the foot of the giant bed.

Somewhere through the emotional tide, he heard Malfoy demand. "Help me, Jamie!" Moments later, there was a hand on his shoulder and Malfoy peered down at him. "I would never target your sister, Weas-Ron. Never. Ginny is the only friend I have besides Jamie."

"What are you talking about?" Ron muttered, thickly.

"Your sister came down to my room to make sure that I was okay after overhearing you all fight. It was as if I had never ever made fun of her. She gave me the most amazing back rub of all time and it actually made the pain go away. She's done it every few days since and doesn't want anything in return. She's kind just for the sake of being kind, just like Jamie."

"Bill always called her a miniature mum," Ron croaked. "She takes care of Errol, keeps the twins out of big trouble, and reminds Percy to eat and sleep. What are we going to do without her?"

"She can't be dead," Draco whispered. "If the monster was just going to kill her, then it wouldn't have taken her back to its lair." He sat up straight. "Where's the list? We have to look it over again. We can still figure out the monster and where it is."

"It's a basilisk. Hermione found out right before she got petrified." Jamie showed him the slip of paper.

"Giant snake, murderous stare, poisonous fangs, spiders fear it, and the crow of a rooster is fatal to it. Oh, Bloody Hell."

"What, Dray?"

"She told me and I promised not to tell anyone. I didn't even realize what she was saying. She was crying and she even said that it was all her fault, but I didn't ask her why. Ginny killed Hagrid's chickens. She knew the monster was a basilisk."

"Ginny's not the Heir of Slytherin!" Ron shouted, angrily, towering above the boy.

"Of course not," Draco said irritably. "But the Heir was controlling her. There's loads of ways to do it. The Imperious Curse, possession, memory charms. The Heir didn't have to do anything because he could force Ginny to do it for him. But how would you control a basilisk?"

"By speaking parseltongue! Humans can't understand it. Only a parselmouth like me would hear anything! That voice in Lockhart's office? I bet that was the basilisk or the Heir. No one else would have even heard the hissing while it sounded like shouting to me."

Draco caught on fast. "And Slytherin was a famous parselmouth. The ability would be passed down through the generations."

Ron was writing as fast as he could to amend the list. If they could figure this out . . .

_Jamie comes to live with Professor Snape._

_Dobby warns of great evil coming to Hogwarts._

**_Jamie hears a voice in Lockharts office._**

_Initial Attack. Mrs. Norris was petrified on Halloween just outside the Girls Toilet on the second floor. Message left on wall. "Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies of the Heir Beware._

_Hermione and I do some sleuthing and find the first spiders. Hermione gets the idea for Polyjuice. She gets Lockhart to sign a permission slip for Moste Potente Potions and starts brewing it in the Girls Toilet._

_The bludger attacked Jamie at the quidditch game, and Professor Lockhart removed all of the bones in his arm. Dobby appears in hospital wing and confesses to bludger. Colin Creevey is petrified._

_Jamie discovers that he's a Parselmouth at the Dueling Club._

**_Hagrids chickens are killed by Ginny._**

_Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly-Headless Nick are petrified._

_The Polyjuice Potion failed. Hermione turned herself into a cat person._

_Someone through Tom Riddle's diary at Moaning Myrtle. Jamie's chivalry demanded we enter the Girls Toilet again and remove the offending book._

_Hermione figures out the diary, and Tom Riddle takes her and Jamie back in time to show them how he 'caught' the 'Heir of Slytherin' and what the idiots thought was the monster. Diary is stolen by Gryffindor Girl. **(Ginny?)**_

_Umbridge kidnaps Jamie and Snape rescues him._

_Draco comes to live with Snape and Jamie. He's uh, paralyzed._

_Hermione gets petrified along with the Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater returning from the Library._

_Hagrid gets sent to Azkaban._

_Snape goes into the Forbidden Forest and interrogates Aragog (AKA: giant spider). Aragog is afraid of Monster._

**_Ginny tries to confess something important._**

**_Ginny is taken into the Chamber and the school is evacuated_.**

"Who else is noticing that every attack is near the Girls Toilet?"

"I told you I didn't care about the toilet, Jamie!" Ron announced triumphantly, turning crimson under the identical Snape smirks that Jamie and Draco bestowed upon him. "Okay, so for whatever reason, the Heir of Slytherin is basing his operation out of the Girl's Toilet. A galleon says that the entrance is in there?"

"Where's the proof, Weasley? If you're wrong, then we could waste time in the wrong place."

"Moaning Myrtle," Jamie shouted. "You said it yourself, why would a ghost haunt a bathroom? One who-"

"Died there," Draco finished. "Moaning Myrtle died in that bathroom. She was the student fifty years ago, killed by the basilisk. She never even knew what killed her. Alright, to the Girl's Bathroom. Jamie, you stay here."

"WHAT?"

"If you think for one second that I'm going to let you go fight a basilisk and whoever the real heir is, you're mental, Harry James Potter-Snape. Completely mental."

"It's not like you're going to be any help to me," Ron protested. "Jamie saved the Sorceror's Stone last year. He's more than capable of handling an overgrown garden snake."

Ignoring the jibe at his useless legs, Draco growled. "Overgrown garden snake, Weasley? The thing grows to be up to thirty feet long. It has a murderous stare and its fangs are poisonous. There is no way that I'm letting my best friend anywhere near that thing. He's just a kid."

"I'm the same year as you," Jamie said hotly.

"But almost a year younger," Draco countered. "Besides Professor Snape would have my head if I let you leave this room with Fudge and Umbridge running around."

"They're outside. I'm going, Draco. Every second counts for Ginny. Dad will understand. If he doesn't, well, I'll have a lot of time to try and convince him otherwise." Jamie darted out of the room before either older boy could lunge for him, not that Ron would have. It was with a grimace that Draco accepted the crutches and followed to the two Gryffindors down to certain death-by Snape if not by basilisk.

-----

Ron was shocked to find Lockhart two doors down from the Girls Bathroom. By the time they realized he was there, he had seen them. "Damn it," Draco swore. "We'll have to take him with us. Jamie?"

"Expelliarmous."

Lockhart looked rather shocked when his wand disappeared from his hand and watched in astonishment as Jamie passed it to Ron. "What are you three doing here? Everyone's been evacuated. It's dangerous here!"

Draco snorted. "Some Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. We found the chamber and we know what the monster is so you're going to help us rescue Ginny Weasley, Lockhart."

Lockhart stared at them incredulously, turned and fled. Jamie hit him with a petrificus totalis and he fell to the floor.

Draco shrugged. "I suppose that works just as well. Leave him there. Oh, and Lockhart? The monster is a basilisk so keep your eyes shut." The wizard moaned and clamped his eyes shut tight. "Okay, moving onward."

Myrtle was overjoyed to see Jamie. "There was a girl in here earlier, Jamie. She had that awful book with her too. I bet she's the one who threw it at me."

"Myrtle," Jamie interrupted calmly. "Was the girl Ron's sister?"

"She looked an awful lot like him, now that you mention it," the ghost mused before glaring at the redhead. "You're whole family is just terrible." The sinks exploded to life and doused Ron.

Peering out from under the soaked red mop on his head, Ron uttered, "Bloody hell, I'm sick of her doing that. If Ginny and I make it out of this, I'm making her clean the bathrooms for the rest of her life."

"You do that, Weasley," Draco muttered. "How do you do that, Myrtle? From across the room and all."

"The sinks always respond to me," the ghost replied smugly. "Except for that one. That one only listens to hissing like what the girl was doing. It never worked either."

"See, Dray. You need me to do this," Jamie darted forward and glared at the offending sink. A moment later, he was hissing downright eerie sounds at it, and the sink opened up into a tunnel-like slide.

"Oh, great," Draco complained.

"Don't suppose there's a devil's snare under this one do you?" Ron asked nervously. When he got an odd look from the Slytherin, he shrugged. "There was under the last one."

"I doubt it, Weasley. Slytherin was into monsters not plants."

"The plant is a monster," Ron muttered half-heartedly. "Well, she's my sister, so I guess that I go first?"

Draco shook his head. "Let me go first. It won't hurt me, and then if necessary, I can put up a cushioning charm for Jamie."

"Hey!"

It was too late. Draco had already sat down and shoved himself down the tunnel, hauling the crutches after him. He glared at the quickly retreating blonde hair, and turned to Jamie. "Together then?"

Jamie wavered for a second at the mouth of the dark hole. Biting his lip, Jamie retrieved the charmed glass ball that Hermione had created for him at the beginning of the year, and shrugged. Then he yelled down the hole. "I'm coming down, Dray!" Ron swore and quickly followed.

-----

Draco emerged in a rocky cave like room and cast the cushioning charm for his best friend. He even left it up for Weasley. It was with great pleasure that he later recalled how he had removed it a split second before their bumbling Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher came crashing down after them. Moments later the three were looking down the end of a wand.

"I'll go in just far enough for a bit of the skin. Snakes shed, don't they? I'll tell them what I found, the girl dead, you three insane at the horrific sight, I'll be a hero for managing to rescue just you three. How many wizards have faced a basilisk after all? I'll be even more famous. _Bolder than the Basilisk_. That's what I'll title it."

"Lost our minds?" Ron asked skeptically.

"I do possess a rather advanced memory charm. Wouldn't have gotten where I am today, without it."

"Hah, Dray, Hermione owes us five galleons," Jamie burst out suddenly. "We told her he couldn't have done any of that stuff. Oh." The boy suddenly quieted as he realized what Lockhart intended to do.

"Oh, indeed, Jamie. And why did we leave the man's wand where he could get to it, Weasley?" he sneered.

Lockhart shouted "Obliviate!" A burst of light filled the cave . . . from the wrong end of the wand.

Ron laughed. "I didn't. I left him mine."

Draco burst out laughing. "Congratulations, Weasley. That was positively Slytherin."

Before Ron could retort, there was an odd cracking sound. Draco flung himself over Jamie just as the rocks came down. When the dust had settled, there was now a stone wall between them and Ron.

Jamie peeked up. "That isn't good."

"No kidding," Draco muttered. Only one of his crutches survived the cave-in. He'd have to lean on Jamie for quite a bit. "Weasley, you still kicking?"

"Sorry to disappoint," came the muffled yell. "Can you get to Ginny still?"

"Yes, we'll go rescue your sister, you stupid Gryffindor. Try and get us out of here if you would be so kind. If we're lucky we'll be back with her soon." He turned to Jamie. "It's up to us now, Jamie-boy. Shall we go kill a basilisk, rescue the damsel, and save the school all before dinner?"

Jamie grinned. "Lets."

-----

Slytherin's chamber was impressive, and surprisingly basilisk free. Unfortunately, there was a red-haired figure slumped on the ground right underneath the great statue of Slytherin. Jamie ran on ahead, leaving Draco to make his way as quickly as possible. Without the light to guide his path, it was easier said than done. For this reason, he was still ten feet away from Jamie, when a tall and handsome boy almost see-through like a ghost appeared from a small door inside the statue's mouth. He didn't recognize the boy and therefore distrusted him.

Apparently Jamie had met him before. "Tom. Please help us. It wasn't Aragog. It's a basilisk. We have to get out of here quick!"

Tom cocked his head. "Jamie Snape, I do believe. I was ever so pleased to have you writing in my diary, although I couldn't give away what I already knew."

Warning bells went off in Draco's head. This was a very old, very Slytherin game. Tom was playing with them for an unknown reason and that made him dangerous. Jamie didn't understand this however and repeated his plea a little louder. Draco dropped the crutch and crawled desperately forward. "Stop talking, Jamie!" he ordered. "He's not a friend!"

Tom laughed. "I'm heartbroken, Master Malfoy. Expelliarmous. Your father was a dear friend of mine and I've come to learn that so was your father, little Jamie. Your adoptive father, that is. Because Jamie Snape is just a way to hide Harry James Potter."

"Potter-Snape," Jamie shook, but his voice remained strong. "And I only use the last half for every day purposes."

"Oh, but this is hardly an every day event. I'm meeting the boy who Dumbledore believes to be my downfall, the fool. What's so special about you?"

"Who are you?" Jamie asked, softly, already knowing the answer.

"I am Lord Voldemort," the teen laughed, spelling out the name in gold light and rearranging the letters to read Tom Marvolo Riddle. "I will one day rule the Wizarding World through a tyranny of fear, and kill your parents only to be stopped by you. Yes, little Ginny Weasley is a marvelous correspondent, isn't she? She wants so badly for you to like her, Harry, and she's so worried about you, because of the changes that she's overheard her older brother and Hermione discussing."

"Thanks a lot, Weasley," Draco muttered. He was still about six feet away from Jamie, but he didn't dare move while Voldemort Jr. held both of their wands.

"You see, when you returned to Hogwarts this year, not only were you adopted, you were diagnosed with asthma, and you were terrified of everything around you, especially the dark." He waved the wand once with a nonverbal spell.


	15. Blood Brothers

**A/N: This is it, the end. Finite. It'll be at least a month before I post Jamie Snape and the Prisioner of Azkaban, cause that one's a work in progress, but if it's any consolation, Jamie Snape and the Goblet of Fire will be done by the time that one is and be posted faster. Stay tuned!**

**Warnings: Blood.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything affiliated.**

**Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Original Dark Angel**

The shattering of the little glass, light-filled sphere echoed in Draco's ears as the second worst sound he'd ever heard, just under the sound of his father's voice. He knew right off that their chances of survival had diminished greatly. Jamie was useless in the dark, just another liability. He heard a splash as his friend fell forward into the puddle, undoubtedly curling into a ball and shaking. A low keening sound filled the Chamber, and something inside Draco flamed up. "Some all-powerful sorcerer!" he shouted rashly. "Having to play off the fears of a little boy!"

"Hold your tongue!"  
"You can't even bring yourself back without the magical energy of the littlest Weasley kid. You're pathetic."

A blast of force knocked him backward and Tom Riddle advanced on him. "And what of you little Malfoy? You who have nothing and no one, no love. No loyalty. How pathetic is that?"

"I'm loyal to Jamie and he's loyal to Snape and Dumbledore," he spat. "You're afraid of both. I mean, yeah, Dumbledore is more powerful than you, but you're really afraid of Snape, because not only is he talented at Spying and Potions, but more importantly, he loves Jamie. Jamie is his kid! Snape takes care of him and will fight you to the death to protect him and that's what cost you your power the first time!"

"Snape had yet to be born in my time and I will deal with his traitorous ways when I return to power."

"I won't let that happen," Draco growled, tightening his fingers around a rock, silently chanting, "Go ahead. Turn your back on me. I'm just a cripple after all."

"Should I set the basilisk on you first, little Malfoy? Or shall I make you watch your friend's death first. Slytherin, greatest of-" Tom had finally turned his back on Draco and when the rock hit him in the head, he spun back around.

"He's my brother, and you'll have to go through me," Draco growled decidedly, reaching out for the other boy's robes and pulling him closer. He saw Riddle touch his head and draw away bloodstained fingers. "And you're not invulnerable."

"No, but neither is little Ginny," he taunted. In horror, Draco saw blood on the ground, under Ginny's head. "Our physical health is linked, until the energy transfer is complete."

A phoenix was singing. Draco recognized the sound, and it was coming closer. The bird alighted on his head and dropped a frayed piece of fabric in his lap. Picking it up, he recognized it as the Sorting Hat. As the bird flew around the room once more, he recognized it as Fawkes, Dumbledore's familiar. "Great. Now the old coot sends me a riddle." He groaned inwardly at the inadvertent pun.

"Excellent, Malfoy. Let's see how you intend to take out the greatest wizard of all time with a pretty bird and an old hat."

"I couldn't," Draco snapped. "But I'm not trying to take out Dumbledore, I just have to take out you." He jammed the hat on his head, but the voice was mysteriously silent, so he ripped it off again. Didn't muggles think that magic was pulling things out of a hat? Dumbledore would have loved that idea. Draco slipped his hand into the hat, and felt around. Moments later Draco felt something heavy land in the hat and pulled out a long narrow fencing foil, perfectly balanced. If he could move, than it would be an easy thing for him to handle. He had been in training since he was eight. What good would it do a cripple?

"Nice sword, brat. Pity you can't use it. Pity you're a useless, crippled, disowned, mudblood-lover, unworthy of bearing Slytherin's sword."

"It's called a foil, you idiot. Even I know that," Jamie rose unsteadily to his feet. "And my brother isn't useless. He's worth a thousand of you. You see, I may be the Gryffindor with the reckless bravery, but he's the Slytherin. He's got the plan." He took the hat from Draco and moved to face the blinded basilisk. He slowly withdrew a ruby-encrusted broadsword. "Now, this is a sword." Jamie swung the blade and followed through with a flip over the lashing tail.

Draco was shocked. Jamie trusted him enough to get them out of here alive? He'd normally be pretty pleased with himself, but there was one problem. He had no plan. "Improvise, Draco. You're on the right track or the founders wouldn't have given you the foil. There must be a reason you received it. Think. Jamie is fighting the basilisk. Riddle's open but hurting him will hurt Ginny. My assets are a hat, a fencing foil, and the bloody diary that Riddle . . . that Riddle is still partially trapped in until Ginny dies." He raised the foil and slammed it across the book. It was so razor-sharp that it cut through the pages like butter and black ink gushed over his hands.

With a scream, Riddle turned on him, fading as Draco held up the two halves of the book still spurting ink. With one final scream, Riddle disappeared. Draco whipped around to see how Jamie was faring with the basilisk. The snake lay in a still heap, and Jamie was stumbling towards him. The smaller boy fell as he reached him. Draco pulled Jamie over. "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

Jamie cocked his head. "Thing bit me, Dray."

Fawkes landed on Draco's shoulder before the blonde boy could react, and began crying over Jamie. "Thanks, Fawkes. Please work. Please work." The wound closed up right in front of him and Jamie flexed his arm experimentally. "Cool. How'd he do that?"

"Phoenix tears have magical healing powers. Why do you think they're an ingredient in so many healing potions?" Draco was surprised when the bird landed on the ground and butted his hand with its crested head. He lifted it and surveyed the long scratch across his palm. "That rock I threw at him had a sharp edge."

Jamie held up his own hand. A diagonal scrape ran across it. "I almost fell when I was on the statue so I grabbed its nose. Didn't work exactly the way I planned. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Blood brothers?"

Jamie grinned and grabbed his hand. "Harry James Potter-Snape. Nice to meet you, big brother."

"Draco Alexander Malfoy, soon to be Malfoy-Snape. Same to you, little brother."

Trilling a note that sounded like the phoenix was put out with their silly antics, Fawkes wept over their joined hands and they healed up except for a tiny scar in the shape of a teardrop in the center of their respective left palms.

When they looked up, they were surprised to see Ginny staring at them wide-eyed. "Is he gone?"

"Yeah." Jamie went over and gave her a hand up. "Are you okay?"

Ginny burst into tears. "You both almost died! And it was all my fault!'

"No it wasn't," Draco scoffed. The ground wasn't the most comfortable place to be sitting and there was a rock poking his leg that was starting to hurt. "He was possessing you. He's the one who killed the first chicken and the last one too. He painted the messages and petrified people. It wasn't your fault, Ginny. Now come on. Your brother's frantic and we left him back with idiotic Lockhart after the cave in." The rock was really starting to get on Draco's nerves. It was sharp. Wait. "Jamie! I can feel my legs!"

"What?" Jamie splashed over to him. "Are you sure?"

"No, Jamie. I just thought I felt a zillion rocks poking into my useless legs," Draco replied sarcastically. "Yes!"

Jamie hauled him to his feet with Ginny's help and Draco wobbled forward two steps before his knees gave out, not that Jamie let him hit the floor. "Well, that will make it easier to get out of here, because the crutches? Not so helpful after the cave in and the basilisk conspired to crush them."

With one on each side, they made it back to the rock wall relatively quickly. "Dad's going to kill us," Jamie muttered as he helped Ginny through the space Ron had made. Ron practically dragged her through, and it was a minute before he turned around to help Draco.

"Murder's a distinct possibility. I'd rather be grounded for eternity though." Draco handed Ginny the sorting hat, diary, and weapons. "You go up with Lockhart first. I think Fawkes will give you a ride."

Moments later they were back in the girls bathroom with an offended Myrtle. After reassuring her that everything was fine, and that they were sorry not to have died while down there, they emerged and headed straight for the Headmaster's Office. As Ron snickered; "I'd be honored that she wants my company if she had been the least bit particular about who she wanted to spend eternity with. She didn't care which of us died as long as she had someone to share the toilet with."

Ginny was not amused. "Am I going to be expelled?"

"No way," Jamie reassured her. He was on one side of Draco, with Ron on the other. "It was all Riddle's doing."

"But he isn't in the diary anymore. What if they think I'm making it all up?"

"They won't. I promise," Draco reassured. "They can't call all of us liars. Especially Jamie and me. We'd just have to write a letter to the Daily Prophet and the public would be outraged."

A tiny glimmer of a smile appeared on Ginny's face only to disappear as the gargoyles loomed ahead of them. Before they could start guessing sweets, the stone guardians parted and they stepped on the winding stairway.

Inside the office, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were sitting in front of Dumbledore's desk with Percy, Fred, and George. They immediately tackled Ginny and Ron, while Professor Snape had Jamie in his arms before the door shut. All in all, it was a good thing that Draco was only two steps away from a vacant seat. He calmly took a seat and acknowledged the Headmaster's wink (he wasn't really surprised to see the old man there) by placing the weapons, the hat, and the diary halves on the desk before him. Fawkes flew to his perch and began singing. Everyone immediately quieted and found a seat. Professor Snape slid into the seat next to Draco with Jamie in his lap. Glancing from the door to Draco, the man raised an eyebrow. Draco grinned and pointed at Fawkes. The potionsmaster nodded and returned his attention to the Headmaster.

Ron started the story, explaining how they found Hermione's clue and overheard the Professors, gone to get Draco and cornered Professor Lockhart when he tried to leave. He explained about the Girls Bathroom and the Opening to the Chamber, Professor Lockhart's memory charm and the cave in.

Draco explained about Tom Riddle, the basilisk, Fawkes, the sorting Hat, and the weapons. Jamie supplementing the information. They left out the parts about Jamie being bitten by the basilisk (the adults didn't need a stroke upon everything else) and their blood brothers ritual or Draco's miraculous recovery (that could wait until they were alone with Snape and Dumbledore).

Finally Ginny stuttered out the story about the diary and how she came by it. She was crying by the end, and curled up in her father's lap to hide her face. Dumbledore looked very grave. "I do apologize, Miss Weasley. It is a highly unpleasant thing to come across a horrible memory, and to have come across the one you did, I can only regret not realizing and intervening sooner. You have a right to know, all of you that Tom Marvolo Riddle became Lord Voldemort."

Draco and Jamie shrugged nonchalantly while all of the Weasleys gasped in horror. "Riddle told us that in the chamber. Bit of a nasty shock, I might add," Draco commented dryly.

Ron glared at him. "Nasty shock? It's horrible!"

"No, it isn't. At least now there's only one evil wizard Lord in the world. If Riddle had been somebody else and then there were two of them, well, I think I would move to another planet right quickly. I understand from Jamie, that the muggles have some technology that could pull that off. With a little boost of magic . . ." he trailed off. "Sorry, off topic."

Arthur Weasley grinned at him. "No, no. I've heard of the same wonderful things. Rocket ships, I do believe that they are called. Marvelous things. Must try one someday."

Dumbledore cut in smoothly. "I do believe that Miss Weasley has been through enough tonight, and should go up to the hospital wing to be checked over. Then she may return for the feast."

"Feast, Headmaster?" Snape inquired.

"How could we not celebrate such an event? I do believe that Madame Pomfrey has just administered the restorative to the petrified victims. We will celebrate this in fine style. I must run Professor Lockhart up to the infirmary as well, he does seem awfully quiet, something must have struck him quite odd. I shall see you all at the feast, and I do believe that I will be having a word with you and your boys tomorrow morning, if you'll join me here for breakfast."

"We shall be delighted, Headmaster."

"Excellent. Excellent. Move along."

-----

Snape pulled his boys aside as soon as they left the office, catching Draco as the boy's knees gave out. He tapped his wand twice and conjured a new pair of crutches. Either that or he summoned a pair from his quarters. Draco didn't catch which. He nodded his thanks, and regained his footing. "Better than before," he shrugged. "So, feast?"

"Not so fast you two. I want a slightly more detailed account of why exactly you two went down into the Chamber alone, and how Fawkes healed you, Draco."

"We had to rescue Ginny," Draco offered with a pointed look. "And Fawkes cried over our hands, when Jamie and I swore a blood brothers oath."

Snape got his silent message, but Jamie turned around. "I don't need to be protected, Draco. I made the choice to go down to the chamber even though you warned me not to. And I had to. I'm the only parselmouth and without me no one could get in."

Snape looked first at Jamie and then at Draco. He nodded. "I'll ground you tomorrow. Go to the feast. The others will be down soon. Enjoy yourselves, because you're restricted to the grounds until Jamie's birthday."

"I can deal with that," Jamie shrugged. "Not much of a punishment, Dad."

"You've got another five years for me to make up for it. Now get out of my sight, before I give you detention until you graduate."

They didn't need to be told a second time.

-----

Hermione appeared half-way through the feast. In her eager congratulatory hug, she threw her arms not only around Ron and Jamie, but a very startled Draco as well.

He untangled himself as quickly as possible. "Are you feeling okay, Granger?"

"Never better," she chirped.

He wasn't the only one looking strangely at her now. "You hate me, Granger. I'm an evil Slytherin, remember?"

Hermione hung her head. "I was wrong. I'm sorry."

Draco glanced over at Jamie's elated expression. Of course that was all it took to get back in his good graces. He was a Gryffindor after all and too forgiving for his own good. But that was what Draco was here for; to use his cunning to protect Jamie from the ones who would take advantage of him. With any luck, Hermione would have truly learned her lesson and not fall into that category. He wouldn't count on it, but right now, it wouldn't do to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"As long as you're what's best for Jamie, it's forgotten," he stated calmly, offering one hand to shake. She accepted. Jamie's grin was worth it.

"So Hermione, did Dumbledore catch you up?" Ron asked curiously.

"No," she answered pleasantly. "So what did I miss?"

Ron grinned brightly. "You'll never guess who the Heir of Slytherin is!"

"Voldemort naturally," Hermione replied. "He's the only known parselmouth in the last century, besides Jamie of course."

Ron stared at her. "Well, we knew him by another name. See he used to be . . ."

"Tom Marvolo Riddle, Class of 1949," Hermione answered promptly. "He used an anagram for his new alias."

Ron's mouth dropped. "Hermione? You're scary. Brilliant, but scary."

Draco looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "How did you figure it out, Grange-I mean, Hermione?"

She had the good grace to blush. "I was trying to connect you to Riddle. I knew that I had seen those mannerisms before, and there's an old theory that when a person is reincarnated they bear a name made from the scrambled letters of the name of the previous incarnation. It came close, but there were a few discrepancies. I re-arranged the letters that were left over from his name and saw **Lord V**. I pulled out **Lord Voldemort** from **Tom Marvolo Riddle** with only three letters left over, which created the words **I Am**."

Draco nodded. "I think that Riddle would have liked the theory. He was reincarnating himself as a new person."

"Sort of like me?" Jamie inquired.

Draco shook his head, and messed up the disastrous nest his brother called hair. "You were Jamie all along. The rest of the world is just too blind to see it."

Jamie yelped and put both hands protectively over his hair. "As if it wasn't bad enough already, Dray. I'm gonna steal your hair gel for that."

"We've got all summer, Jamie-boy. All summer."

Jamie grinned. "Good, cause I've got big plans."

-----

Kings Cross was busy, and actually unnecessary, but Snape let them ride the train home anyway and met them at the station with the Weasley parents. He was conversing with them when he noticed a disturbance a short distance away. He abruptly halted the conversation and moved to his son's aid.

-----

Jamie felt a strong hand close over his shoulder and jerked away, turning to face his Uncle. Fear clutched at him as he stared in horror at the man. Draco rose to his feet unsteadily, not yet totally recovered from the spinal injury, but obviously was willing himself not to collapse. "Don't you dare touch him!"

Vernon raised a hand to backhand the boy out of his path, but Jamie grabbed at the beefy appendage and stopped him. "You can't hurt him. And you can't hurt me anymore, either!"

"And why not you little freak," the man asked in a dangerous tone.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore. You see, my dad's gonna kick your butt for threatening me and Dray. Look behind you."

Vernon turned to face an outraged Snape who punched the man square in the face, before turning to Petunia. "If any of yours come near my son again, I will turn you all into slimy creatures the like of which has never been seen before."

With a petrified squeak, Petunia clutched Dudley to her, but Vernon heaved to his feet and faced Snape. "The boy's our property! That Umbridge woman said so!"

"My son is no more your property than Buckingham Palace, Dursley. Anyone who says differently is lying." Snape calmly lifted Jamie onto his shoulders and walked away with one arm around Draco's shoulders.

"Bye, Dudley! I'm going to have the best summer!"

"Dead straight," Snape confirmed.

**The End.**


End file.
